COL.  GEORGE  WASHINGTON  FLOWERS 
MEMORIAL  COLLECTION 


DUKE  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 
DURHAM.  N.  C. 


PRESENTED  BY 

W.  W.  FLOWERS 


CONTROVERSY 


BETWEEN 


h  i  ujr  ■:»  4J  Mr  1 1^T  1^^  9  9      A  "mr  i  'k     ^  ^ 


KRSKIJVJK"    AND    "W.  M." 


ON  THE 


practioabijl.it  Y 


Of 


SUPPKKSSINa    G^VMBLING- 


KlcHMOiM): 

TRINTEU    AT     Tin.    WIIM;    hook    AM)    JOn    CKFICL. 

1862. 


^^if. 


a 


r-tr-rr^f':^  PREFACE. 
^   1  1>H 


Tlie  within  articles  were  originally  published  (except  ^'Ers- 
kine's"  last)  in  the  Richmond  Whig;  and  wiien  application  was 
made  to  ^^Erskine"  to  consent  to  their  re-publication  in  this 
form  he  put  his  consent  upon  the  condition  that  he  was  to  be 
permitted  to  answer  ^'W.  M.'s"  last  article  and  to  revise  and 
correct  whatever  inaccuracies  which  may,  through  the  despatch 
with  which  his  articles  wore  furnished  to  the  press,  have  crept 
into  them. 


•I  ■  "^  •■     * 

u.iers  alike  ol  opniion  and  of  feeling  u. 

^nance,  and  as  longas  "grass  grows  and  water  tlowo 
.  rt^ill  forever  be.  That  this  conclusion  is  correct,  I  will  fur- 
.ish  two  reasons,  either  of  \vhich  will  be  found  unanswerable: 
First,  its  popularity  in  high  circles.  Henry  Clay  and  S.  S. 
Prentiss,  were  in  their  day  and  generation  inveterate  gamblers, 
so  were  Charles  James  Fov  and  Kichard  Brinsley  Sheridan,  and 
among  the  men  who  occupy  the  relationship  to  this  age  they  did 
to  theirs,  in  social  and  political  prominence,  you  will  find  those 
who  are  equally  as  fond  of  cards,  and  human  nature  is  the  same 
to-day  that  it  was  two  hundred  years  ago,  when  the  mighty 
bard  of  Avon  made  Brutus  say: 


"  The  name  of  Cassius  honors  this  corruption, 
And  cbastiseraent  doth  therefore  hide  its  head," 


8387 


CONTROYEHSY. 


CAN  GAMBLING  BE  SUPPRESSED^ 

To  the  Editor  of  the  Whi<r: 

The  prominence  given  to  the  above  subject  at  this  time,  by 
the  anthorities  and  the  press  of  tliis  city,  will  furnish,  T  trust,  a 
snfficient  excuse  for  the  tnrther  intrusion  upon  the  attention  of 
the  pubh'c,  and  more  especially  upon  the  attention  of  the  Legis- 
lature, of  sundry  suggestions  upon  it.  That  gambling  is  a  vice 
of  no  ordinary  magnitude,  professional  gamblers  themselves  do 
not  pretend  to  deny,  that  it  should  be  promptly,  utterly  and 
eternally  suppressed,  will  be  universally  admitted.  Tiiat  its 
suppression  however  is  a  moral,  legal  and  literal  impossibility, 
is  equally  insusceptible  of  dispute. 

In  no  age  of  the  world  has  gambling  ever  had  a  puhlic  advo- 
cate, or  lacked  pri\^ate  votaries.  From  time  immemorial,  it  has 
been  among  the  nabobs  of  every  land,  t^ie  magnates  of  every 
realm  a  popular  past-time.  Its  origin  is  hoary  with  age.  Before 
the  flood  Chance  was  a  God  at  whose  altar  millions  worshipped, 
and  millions  throng  his  temples  to-day.  Read  the  23d,  24th, 
25th  and  26th  verses  of  the  first  chapter  of  the  Acts  and  you 
will  find  that  when  Barsabas  and  Matthias  found  that  they  were 
rival  aspirants  for  a  vacant  apostleship,  that  they  resolved  to 
gamble  for  it,  and  that  IMatthias  won  it,  and  from  that  day  to 
this,  there  has  been  a  gradually  growing  propensity  among  men 
to  submit  matters  alike  of  opinion  and  of  feeling  to  the  arbitra- 
ment of  chance,  and  as  long  as  '^  grass  grows  and  water  flows," 
so  it  will  forever  be.  That  this  conclusion  is  correct,  I  will  fur- 
nish two  reasons,  either  of  Avhich  will  be  found  unanswerable: 
First,  its  popularity  in  high  circles.  Henry  Clay  and  S.  S. 
Prentiss,  were  in  their  day  and  generation  inveterate  gamblers, 
so  were  Charles  James  Fox  and  Richard  Brinsley  Sheridan,  and 
among  the  men  who  occupy  the  relationship  to  this  age  they  did 
to  theirs,  in  social  and  political  prominence,  jou  will  find  those 
who  are  equally  as  fond  of  cards,  and  human  nature  is  the  same 
to-day  that  it  was  two  htmdred  years  ago,  when  the  mighty 
bard  of  Avon  made  Brutus  say: 


"  The  name  of  C&ssius  honors  this  corruption, 
Aod  chastisement  doth  therefore  hide  its  bead." 

^  jL 


8387 


One  of  the  prerogatives  of  fame,  is  impunity  for  small  vices. 
and  all  vices  are  small  when  the  culprit  is  socially  popular  and 
intellectually  great.  Ministers  may  preach  against  gambling; 
essayists  write  against  it;  orators  thunder  against  it;  poetr.  sing 
against  it;  mothers  pray  against  it,  and  law  makers  legislate 
against  it;  hut  unite  all  of  these  A'-ast  resources  of  multiform 
power,  and  then  throw  in  the  gates  of  Hell,  and  altogether,  they 
never  can  prevail  against  it.  W/ieii  and  where  u-as  g-ambling 
ever  pvt  downl  Who  did  it,  and  how  did  they  doit?  If  it 
could  be  done  at  all,  of  course,  it  could  be  done  only  by  law. 
]jaw  is  said  to  be  the  perfection  of  human  reason,  whereas, 
gambling  is  the  legitimate  offspring  of  passion,  and  when  and 
where  did  reason  ever  successfully  cope  with  passion?  It  may 
be  said  that  there  is  a  higlier  law^  known  as  public  opinion, 
more  formidable  in  the  suppression  of  vices  than  even  the  statute 
law.  I  admit  the  potency  of  public  opinion,  but  ])ublic  opinion 
is  more  emphatically  expressed  by  the  conduct  than  by  the  lan- 
guage of  men,  and,  unfortunately,  public  opinion,  as  thus  em« 
phatically  declared,  is  overwhelmingly  in  favor  of  gambling. 

"  'Tis  true,  'tis  pity,  pity  'tis,  'lis  true." 

The  second  reason  which  stands  in  open  opposition  to  the 
suppression  of  gambling  is,  the  aspect  in  which  a  law,  inhibiting 
it,  is  regarded  by  the  masses.  They  feel  that  their  money  is 
their  own,  and  that  they  have  the  same  natural,  and  ought  to 
have  the  same  legal  right,  to  invest  it  as  they  please,  as  is  ac- 
corded, by  the  law,  to  the  tobacco,  cotton  or  calico  gambler;  for, 
they  say,  the  man  that  speculates  in  cotton,  tobacco,  calico,  or 
anything  else,  is  staking  his  money  at  a  risk  upon  a  chance,  and 
is,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  literally  a  gambler;  and  the  only 
answer  Arhich  can  be  given  to  this  argument,  is,  they  are  neither 
.so  called  or  regarded.  That  is  true,  but  not  a  whit  truer  than 
that  they  are,  nevertheless,  above  and  beyond  all  denial,  gam- 
blers— often  reckless  gamblers.  I  do  not  employ  the  term  in  its 
technical,  but  its  literal  sense;  and,  between  a  fair  game  of  faro 
and  a  sharp  trade  in  cotton,  there  exists  but  one  striking  differ- 
ence. In  the  cotton  operation,  ten  thousand  words  are  inter- 
changed, and  it  is  rarely  ever  the  case  that  ten  Ihousajid  words 
are  interchanged,  without  the  direct,  sometimes  iiniocent,  at 
other  times  malignant,  infliction  of  more  or  less  damage  upon 
the  truth.  Whereas,  at  faro,  not  a  word  is  spoken — if  you  win, 
you  do  not  have  to  lie  to  do  it,  and  if  you  lose  your  last  dollar, 
you  can  then  quote  the  message  of  Francis  the  First,  to  his 
mother:  ''All  is  lost  save  honor." 

Gambling  is  a  source,  never  failing  source,  of  excitement. 
jLxcitement  men  must  have,     It  is  as  necessary  to  their  happi-. 


iiess  as  atmosphere  is  to  their  existence.  Every  man  Hving  is 
to  sonic  extent  and  in  some  form  an  enthnsiast.  Some  are  af- 
fected with  a  passion  for  one  thing,  some  for  another.  Sculpture, 
painting,  music,  meclianism,  metaphysics,  mesmerism,  astro- 
nomy, anatomy,  geology,  botany,  chemistry,  eloquence,  poetry — 
all  have  their  votaries.  Their  favorite  passion  is  a  hobby  on 
which  the  '•  pent  up  Utica"  of  their  feelings  can  take  a  morning 
or  an  evening  ride  and  get  an  airing.  Now,  suppose  a  man 
does  not  happen  to  be  blessed  with  an  elaborately  cultivated  in- 
tellect, or  a  naturally  refined  taste,  what  interest  can  he  find  in 
one  of  Ilaphaeris  cartoons,  Canova's  busts,  Homer's  poems  or 
Cicero's  orations?  Yet  may  he  not  be  afl^ected  with  the  same 
irrepressible  passion,  the  same  burning  tiiirst  ibr  excitement  that 
makes  enthusiasts  of  other  men?  Certainly  he  may,  and  when 
we  look  around  us  in  the  world,  we  find  that  out  of  every  hun- 
dred men  in  it,  ninety-nine  of  them  have  cultivated  a  card  en- 
thusiasm; and  any  law  which  strikes  at  the  fullest  and  freest 
fruition  of  a  pet  passion  of  tli^e  million  is  bound  to  arouse  the 
combative  propensities  of  the  masses,  and  they  will  eternally 
thwart  and  foil  its  execution.  They  can  do  it  and  they  will. 
Every  law  is  bound  to  be  u  dead  letter  when  the  resolute  ener- 
gies of  an  active  people  are  arrayed  in  open  hostility  against  it, 
and  they  always  will  be  arrayed  against  any  law  which  they 
either  feel  or  conceive  abridges  their  personal  rights  and  privi- 
leges, or  discriminates  against  tliem  in  favor  of  higher  and  more 
cultiv^ated  classes  of  society. 

They  say  we  do  not  object  that  this  man  shall  know  the 
"local  habitation  and  the  name"  of  every  '-'bright  particular 
star"  in  Heaven,  and  worship  them  all  if  he  wants  to,  or  that 
that  one  shall  have  a  bed  of  roses  on  which  to  sleep  and  dream 
of  fiowcrs  that  never  fade.  We  are  willing  that  the  lovers  of 
music  shall  have  a  perpetual  '' concord  of  sweet  sounds"  to 
serenade  them,  and  that  the  lovers  of  eloquence  may  imagine  if 
they  please  that,  even  at  this  late  day,  they  can  distinctly  hear 
the  dying  reverberations  of  the  mighty  thunders  that  burst, 
thousands  of  years  ago,  from  the  lips  of  Demosthenes.  We  care 
not  how  mad  your  literary  or  scientific  enthusiasts  run,  nor  how 
furiously  they  ride  their  hobbies.  All  we  ask  is,  that  when  wc 
want  to  mount  ours  they  shall  not  be  unceremoniously  taken 
from  us  and  impounded.  It  is  idle,  then,  to  talk  about  suppress- 
ing gambling.  You  might  as  well  think  of  storming  Fortress 
Monroe  with  a  pop-gun,  or  closing  up  the  crater  of  Mount  Ve- 
suvius with  a  cobweb.  The  men  who  pass  laws  against  it  will 
themselves  violate  the  laws  they  enact,  and  the  men  you  may 
appoint  to  execute  the  said  laws  to-day  were,  in  all  probability, 
bucking  the  "Tiger"  yesterday;  and  if  they  do  notdo  it  to-day 
with  their  coinraissions  in  their  pocket,  will,  if  they  are  al  all 

218387 


8 

given  to  scruples  of  conscience,  lay  down  their  commissions  to 
hunt  the  jungle  of  the  spotted  varmint  to-morrow.  Under  such 
circumstances,  what  is  the  best  thing  we  can  do?  I  answer,  if 
we  cannot  put  it  down,  let  us  diminish  it  as  much  as  possible, 
and  relieve  it  of  all  the  odium  it  may  be  in  our  power  to  remove 
from  it.  As  a  nation  we  are  in  our  infancy.  The  old  United 
States  was  but  in  its  swaddling  garments  when  we  tore  away 
from  it  and  tore  away  the  best  portion  of  its  clothes.  Its  history 
furnishes  no  lesson  from  the  study  of  which  we  can  profit^  in  an 
effort  to  suppress  any  description  of  vice.  We  will  have,  then, 
to  make  a  trip  across  the  ocean  and  look  into  the  history  of  older 
governments,  and  study  the  operation  of  their  laws  against 
gambling.  For  over  a  thousand  years  legislation-  against  it  was 
tried  in  vain  in  Europe.  Within  the  last  fifty  years,  however, 
legislation  has  taken  it  under  its  protection  there,  and  the  result 
is  favorable  to  its  diminution.  In  Germany  and  France  gambhng 
is  legalized,  and  gambling-houses  are  licensed  and  regulated  by 
law,  and  the  result  is  that  they  .are  a  source  of  revenue  to  the 
government,  are  conducted  with  propriety  and  integrity,  and 
that  there  is  not  as  nuich  gambling  as  there  was  when  they  were 
conducted  secretly  against  the  law.  Let,  then,  our  Legislature 
pass  an  act  licensing  gambling,  and  fix  the  license  at  a  IdgJi 
figure. 

Let  the  law  require  that  every  applicant  for  a  license  shall  give 
bond,  in  the  sum  of  fifty  thousand  dollars,  for  the  honest  and 
upright  management  of  his  establishment,  and  the  prompt  pay- 
ment of  all  its  losses.  Then  make  all  manner  of  cheating  at  all 
manner  of  games,  felonies,  and  when  the  keeper  of  a  gaming 
house  is  convicted  of  a  violation  of  this  law,  make  the  penalty  a 
forfeiture  of  his  bond,  and  ten  years'  imprisonment  at  hard  labor 
in  the  Penitentiary.  Then  make  it  felony  for  any  man  to  either 
keep,  or  frequent,  and  bet  in  an  unlicensed  gaming  house.  Who 
can  be  found  then  reckless  enough  to  visit  such  a  house,  with 
the  hungry  jaws  of  the  State  ju-ison  yawning  upon  him,  when 
he  can  enjoy  precisely  the  same  privilege  under  the  sheltering 
wing  of  the  law?  The  total  abolition  of  all  small  gambling 
houses,  will  be  the  innndiate  and  inevitable  result. 

Three  reasons  can  be  given  to  justify  this  conclusion.  In  the 
first  place,  not  more  than  one  gambler  in  fifty  can  give  the  bond. 
Secondly,  nobody  Avill  patronize  an  unlicensed  house j  and, 
if  they  attempt  to  do  it,  the  law  against  it  can  and  will  be  en- 
forced. The  prejudices  of  the  public  will  be  aroused  against 
■any  man  who  will  seek  to  evade  a  compliance  Avitli  the  law,  that 
lias  for  its  object  the  regulation  of  his  honesty,  and  they  will 
feel  that  his  object  was  to  cheat,  swindle,  defraud  and  rob  the 
public,  and  that  he  richly  deserves  to  be  branded  as  a  felon,  and 
locked  up  in  the  State  prison.     As  the  law  now  stands,  a  mau 


can  swindle  yon  ont  of  your  last  dollar  at  cards  and  then  tell 
you  that  you  are  a  sucker,  and  langh  in  your  face  with  impu- 
nity. Make  it  a  felony  to  cheat  at  cards,  and  you  will  abolish 
half  the  games  that  are  played,  and  drive  men,  who  now  live  by 
cheating  and  swindling,  into  honorable  avocations. 

Put  down  small  gaming  houses,  and  you  will  achieve  a  SoH'c- 
rino  victory  over  gaming  itself.  It  is  in  these  small  establish- 
ments youths  are  initiated  and  old  suckers  robbed.  They  have 
their  stool  pigeons  and  decoy-ducks,  drummers  and  pimps,  like 
so  many  spies,  Itu'king,  sitting,  standing,  sneaking  and  swelling 
through  the  highways  and  the  byways,  the  street  corners,  the 
bar-rooms  and  hotel  parlors  of  the  city.  They  are  clothed  and 
fed  to  hunt  down  strangers  and  inveigle  them  into  their  dens, 
where  they  7iiaij  lose  but  cannot  win.  Men  who  have  means 
and  character  enough  to  give  a  bond  such  as  1  have  mentioned, 
Avill  never  resort  to  such  low,  dirty  and  rascally  appliances  to  get 
custom.  They  will  leave  the  bettor  to  obey  the  impulses  of  his 
own  volition,  and  his  own  volition  alone.  Then,  again,  when 
you  license  such  establishments,  you  draw  aside  the  veil  of  se- 
crecy, and  make  it  an  open  show  and  a  free  fight.  Every  man, 
then,  who  visits  these  establishments  may  become  a  witness  to 
prove  the  violation  of  any  provisions  of  the  law  regulating  them, 
and  intended  for  the  protection  of  the  public,  without  being  ex- 
posed himself  to  a  prosecution,  and,  in  effect,  it  will  raise  up 
thousands  of  seiUinels  to  watch  and  superintend  the  manage- 
ment of  these  establishments,  whereas  now  they  are  without  a 
solitary  monitor.  In  the  next  place,  it  will  enable  a  landlord  to 
enforce  decorum  on  his  premises,  which  he  is  now  not  always 
able  to  do,  lest  the  vagabond  whom  he  may  eject  t(vday  from 
his  premises  may  become  an  informer  to-morrow.  And  in  the 
third  place,  it  will  shell  out  the  puritanical  hypocrites  who  pray 
in  public  but  now  bet  in  secret.  Riui  up  the  curtain,  however, 
and  "nary"  another  Aminadab  Sleek  will  you  ever  hear  groan- 
ing under  the  paws  of  the  royal  Bengal.  Then,  again,  when 
men  go  to  gaming  houses  now,  they  have  to  wait  until  the 
shades  of  night  overlay  the  earth,  or  slink  in  and  ont  at  the  back 
door;  and  I  maintain  that  it  is  radically  wrong  to  force  free-born 
and  high-spirited  men  to  the  desperate  extremity  of  doing  that 
which  is  bound  to  involve  the  humiliation  of  personal  dignity, 
and  the  consciousness  of  more  or  less  personal  degradation. 
The  results  never  can  be  salutary.  Is  it  suspected  that  the  au- 
thor of  the  foregoing  thoughts  is  himself  a  gambler?  He  is  not. 
He  never  betted  a  dime  in  his  life  on  faro,  roulette,  or  any  of 
those  games,  and  the  hints  he  has  given  above  are  as  free  from 
interest  on  the  one  hand  as  they  are  from  prejudice  on  the  other. 

ERSKINE. 


10 

CAN  GAMBLING  BE  SUPPRESSED? 

To  the  Editor  of  the  Whig: 

A  communication,  by  '^Erskine,"  with  the  above  heading, 
which  appeared  in  your  issue  of  December  7th,  has  filled  me, 
as  I  doubt  not  it  has  the  minds  of  many  of  your  readers,  with 
sorrow.  Whatever  the  object  of  the  writer  may  have  been,  the 
article  will  not  serve  any  other  purpose  than  that  of  palliating 
the  vice  of  gambling — a  vice,  as  the  author  of  the  communica- 
tion confesses,  "of  no  ordinary  magnitude."  He  wishes  to  see 
gambling  promptly  and  finally  suppressed,  and  what  means  does 
he  use  to  further  this  important  result?  He  uses  scarcely  any 
language  but  what  will  inevitably  serve  to  encourage  those  who 
commit  this  vice  to  prosecute  their  ruinous  career.  He  cites,  for 
their  gratification,  what  he  alleges  are  Scriptural  and  Apostolical 
examples.  He  tells  them  that  "^'before  the  flood,"  Chance  was 
a  god  at  whose  altar  millions  worshipped,  and  that  when  Barsa- 
bas  and  Matthias,  as  recorded  in  the  first  chapter  of  the  Acts  of 
the  Apostles,  found  themselves  rival  aspirants  for  a  vacant  Apos- 
tleship,  "they  resolved  to  gamble  for  it,  and  that  Matthias  won 
it."  Now,  to  say  nothing  of  the  unhappy  manner  in  which  the 
latter  part  of  the  extract  was  penned,  let  me  ask  "Erskine" 
where  he  found  out  that  any  species  of  gambling  prevailed  be- 
fore the  flood?  Who  or  what  is  his  authority  for  the  statement? 
The  Bible  says  nothing  on  the  subject,  never  mentions  a  single 
individual  of  that  period  as  having  anything  to  do  with  games 
of  chance.  If  the  Bible  is  silent  on  the  subject,  one  is  entirely 
at  a  loss  to  know  whence  the  writer  of  this  article  got  his  infor- 
mation, for  there  is  no  other  authentic  history  of  the  Antidelu- 
vian  era,  or,  indeed,  any  history  at  all.  If  the  assertion  could 
have  been  proven,  and  the  fact  established,  the  period  was  cer- 
tainly a  most  unfortunate  one  to  reter  to,  for  "Erskine,"  who 
admits  die  immorality  of  gambling,  might  very  readily  have  re- 
men. bered  that  it  was  on  account  of  the  vices  of  the  men  of  that 
time  that  the  flood  came  and  swept  them  away.  Who  informed 
the  author  of  the  communication  in  question  that  Barsabas  and 
Matthias  were  "rival  aspirants"  for  the  vacant  Aposfleship/ 
The  account  in  Acts,  which  he  quotes,  says  nothing  of  their 
being  "aspirants"  to  the  office,  says  nothing  of  their  being 
rivals,  or  desiring  the  position  at  all.  What  is  the  authority  for 
saying  that  they  resolved  to  gamble  for  it?  The  account  does 
not  state  that  they  had  anything  to  do  with  what  was  done  on 
the  occasion.  It  does  not  inform  us  that  these  two  Disciples 
were  even  present  at  the  time  referred  to.  What  does  he  get  his 
information  from?  If  he  had  examined  the  narrative,  instead  of 
trusting  to  some  vague  recollection  of  it,  as  he  seems  to  have 
done,  he  would  have  seen  that  the  lot  was  east  by  others.     It 


11 

is  evident,  from  the  language,  that  these  two  Disciples  had 
nought  to  do  with  the  act  which  elevated  them  to  office.  They 
did  not  gamble  for  the  position,  nor  did  anybody  gamble  on  the 
occasion,  as  can  be  shown  by  a  most  simple  illustration.  Wlien 
a  landed  estate  is  to  be  divided  between  (say)  three  heirs,  and 
into  three  equal  parts,  it  is  a  most  common  thing  lor  three  tickets, 
representing  these  three  portions,  to  be  placed  in  a  common  re- 
ceptacle, and  each  heir  draws  out  one  of  those  tickets,  and  takes 
the  part  of  ihe  land  designated  by  the  ticket.  This  is  the  mo- 
dern lot,  and  corresponds  to  the  ancient  lot,  in  principle,  such 
as  was  used  by  the  Apostles  in  the  selection  of  one  to  fill  the 
vacancy  occasioned  bj''  the  Apostacy  and  death  of  Judas,  and 
by  the  Roman  soldiers  as  to  who  should  have  the  seamless  coat 
of  the  crucified  Jesus.  There  was  no  gambling  in  tlie  case,  no 
property  of  one  man  passing  to  the  hands  of  another  npon  a  turn 
of  a  die,  without  any  equivalent — the  circumstance,  and  almost 
alone  circumstance,  which  constitutes  the  essence  and  vice  of 
gambling. 

In  further  illustration  of  his  idea  that  gambling  will  go  on, 
this  writer  informs  ns  of  the  '' popularity  of  this  practice  in  high 
circles,"  arguing  from  this  circumstance  that  the  evil  has  too 
strong  a  position  to  be  overthrown.  The  gentleman  might 
as  well  have  argued  the  same  thing  in  respect  to  other  evil 
courses.  Mr.  Clay  and  S.  S.  Prentiss,  he  tells  us,  gambled 
freely,  and  so  did  Charles  James  Fox,  and  Richard  Brinsley 
Sheridan.  All  of  which  is  true,  and  some  of  these  men  were 
guilty  of  other  vices  also.  Mr.  Prentiss  not  only  gambled,  but 
was  notoriously  a  dissipated,  drinking  man,  who  died  before  his 
time,  from  his  excesses.  Mr.  Fox  not  only  gambled,  but  kept 
a  mistress,  was  a  rake  generally,  wore  his  shirt-bosom  all  open 
in  a  very  vulgar,  indecent  way,  and  was  rarely,  as  Mr.  H.  Wal- 
pole  tells  ns.  purified  by  ablutions.  Were  all  these  things  po- 
pular in  high  circles?  Did  the  fact  that  Mr.  Fox  committed 
these  things  prove  that  they  were  popular  in  high  circles?  Mr. 
Richard  Brinsley  Sheridan  not  only  was  a  most  reckless  game- 
ster, but  lie  habitually  dnmk  himself  to  the  most  beastly  intoxi- 
cation, and  was  drowned  in  debt,  and  hunted  by  sherifts,  and 
trusted  by  no  one,  and  died  man-forsaken,  and  God-forsaken, 
and  was  found  dead  in  a  room,  not  a  fit  habitation  for  swine. 
Were  all  these  things  popular  in  high  circles,  because  Mr.  She- 
ridan who  committed  them,  was^  on  account  of  his  brilliant  ta- 
lents, admitted  to  the  best  society?  Is  it  the  sober  truth  in  the 
case,  iMr.  Edited,  that, 

"  The  name  of  Cussius  honors  this  corruption  .'" 

Or  does  the  corruption  dishonor  the  name  of   Cassius?     Did 
Charles  James  Fox  enjoy  the  high  moral  position  of  William 


12 

Pitt  who  never  gambled,  and  nearly  always  had  Mr.  Fox  ''sub 
pollice?''  Did  poor  Sheridan,  the  very  sight  of  whom,  we  sup- 
pose, reminded  men  of  cards,  ever  occupy  the  eminence  and 
have  the  influence  of  Wilberforce,  or  George  Canning?  These 
men  certainly  did  not  attain  the  weight  they  would  have  se- 
cured, if  they  had  been  free  from  this  vice,  and  the  corruption 
surely  dishonored  "the  name  of  Cassius."  The  names  of  the 
prominent  persons  mentioned  by  the  writer  of  the  article  under 
consideration  did  not,  could  not  give  dignity  or  innocence  to  the 
practice  in  question,  and  there  is  nothing  in  the  fact  that  these 
men  were  guilty  of  this  vice,  to  show  that  this  practice  cannot ' 
be  successfully  opposed,  or  will  continue  to  be  committed  with 
no  important  diminution,  as  long  "as  grass  grows,  and  water 
flows."  The  argument,  to  my  mind,  sir,  is  wholly  destitute  of 
force,  or  even  plausibility. 

"Erskine"  asks,  in  itahcs,  "when  and  where  was  gambling 
ever  put  down?"  If  the  gentleman  had  familiarized  himself 
with  the  history  of  gaming,  he  would  have  known  that  the  pub- 
lic opinion,  of  which  he  speaks  slightingly,  as  rather  inclining  to 
the  other  side,  fias  put  an  end  to  female  gambling  for  money. 
This  practice  on  the  part  of  females  is  now  very  rare,  not  un- 
blushingly  committed  as  it  was  in  the  seventeenth  century,  when 
it  called  forth  the  elegant  satire  of  Joseph  Addison,  This  was 
no  small  triumph.  But  1  must  ask,  when  was  robbery  ever 
put  down  thoroughly,  or  intemperance,  or  fraud,  or  slandering, 
or  murder?  Shall  no  true-hearted  lover  of  his  kiiid  ^nd  country, 
especially  in  this  infancy  of  our  Confederacy,  when  all  ought  to 
be  endeavoring  to  give  a  proper  mould  to  its  laws  and  its  virtue, 
shall  no  virtuous  patriot  exert  himself  to  put  down  any  vice,  be- 
cause it  has  not  been  successfully  warred  against  in  days  that 
are  gone?  Shall  you,  Mr.  Editor,  forego  your  laudable  eiforts 
to  give  form  and  color  to  the  destinies  of  the  young  Republic, 
because  evils  have  always  existed  in  free  governments?  If  this 
argument  were  fairly  carried  out  would  it  not  strike  a  death- 
blow at  all  reformatory  legislation  whatsoever? 

But  men  will  not  tolerate  a  law  forbidding  gambling  with  cards 
when  the  gambling  of  trade  is  allowed  and  protected.  This  is 
another  argument.  It  almost  carries  its  refutation  on  its  face, 
from  the  simple  fact  that  trade  lacks  the  essential  feature  which 
constitutes  gambling.  There  is  no  gaining  your  neighbor's 
goods,  without  giving  him  an  equivalent.  You  part  with  goods, 
and  get  money.  There  is  merely  in  the  transaction  a  calculation 
of  probabilities  and  the  laws  of  trade,  which  the  most  compre- 
hensive mind  makes  by.  If  a  man  deceives  his  neighbor,  of 
course  it  is  a  mere  case  of  fraud.  But  there  is  no  such  thing  in 
the  case  as  two  men  meeting  in  a  room,  and  one,  after  the  manage- 
ment of  some  pieces  of  paper^  carrying  oif  the  money  of  the 


13 

other,  without  giving  him  one  cent's  equivalent.  Of  course 
there  is  exchange  or  trade  cannot  exist;  but  in  gambhng  nothing 
is  given,  while  the  other  is  deprived  of  everything.  The  want 
of  parallelism,  between  the  two  cases,  is  almost  too  palpable  to 
allow  of  discussion.  This  writer  is,  of  course,  no  gambler,  as 
he  tells  us  so;  but  he  has  certainly  taken  up  this  plausibility,  so 
often  heard  among  the  advocates  of  this  practice,  without  be- 
stowing on  it  the  anajysis  which  he  is  evidently  capable  of  giv- 
ing it.  I  commend  his  argument  on  this  point  to  his  reexami- 
nation. 

The  more  I  read  this  article,  Mr.  Editor,  the  more  I  am  struck 
with  its  want  of  logical  coherence  and  force.  "^  Excitement  men 
must  have,"  he  tells  us,  and  because  the  minds  of  men,  in  ac- 
cordance with  a  law  of  their  nature,  love  and  cultivate  innocent 
enthusiasm  in  the  line  of  sculpture,  painting,  music,  astronomy, 
poetry,  eloquence,  etc.,  therefore,  no  attempt  to  curb  the  indul- 
gence of  a  guilty  and  pernicious  passion  like  that  of  gaming  can 
be  expected  to  be  successful.  Could  any  reasoning  possibly  be 
more  unsound?  Ninety-nine  men  out  of  every  hundred,  he  in- 
forms us,  have  cultivated  ^' a  card  enthusiasm,"  and  it  is  "a 
pet  passion  of  the  million."  Now,  if  by  "card  enthusiasm," 
he  means  a  passion  for  gambling  for  money;  and,  by  the  subse- 
quent language,  that  gaming  for  the  purposes  of  gain  is  "a  pet 
passion  of  the  milhon,"  I  must  be  permitted  to  doubt  the  cor- 
rectness of  this  estimate  of  the  proportion  such  persons  bear  to 
the  conununity.  The  present  writer  has  never  lived  or  visited 
in  a  community  in  Virginia,  or  heard  authentically  of  one,  where 
the  proportion  of  gamesters  was  greater  than  that  of  ten  to  a 
hundred,  if  it  was  that  even.  I  do  not  think  that  there  is  a 
neighborhood  of  gentlemen  in  Virginia  where  they  would  not 
deem  it  an  insult  to  have  it  said  of  them  that  ninety-nine  out  of 
a  hundred  of  them  had  cultivated  a  passion  for  cards,  or,  in  other 
words,  played  cards  for  money,  for  we  are  talking  of  this,  and 
nothing  else.  Because  of  the  wide  prevalence  of  this  practice, 
this  writer  infers  that  ^^any  law  which  strikes  at  the  fullest  frui- 
tion of  this  pet  passion"  will  be  incessantly  thwarted  and  foiled 
in  its  execution.  Men,  he  says,  '<can  do  it  and  they  will." 
This  is  his  position,  and  yet  he  winds  up  his  article  by  recom- 
mending a  law  forbidding  gambling,  except  in  certain  legalized 
establishments.  Would  not  a  law  oi  this  sort  strike  at  the  fullest 
and  freest  fruition  of  this  passion?  If  a  man  must  walk  or  ride, 
say  three  miles  in  a  city,  to  reach  a  lawful  gambling  house,  and 
cannot  game  elsewhere  on  penalty  of  going  to  the  penitentiary, 
or  paying  a  heavy  fine,  is  this  no  strike  at  the  freest  fruition  ol 
his  passion,  and  if  it  is,  as  it  certainly  is,  how,  according  to  this 
writer,  can  his  own  law  be  carried  out?  There  is  a  singular 
want  of  logic  liere,  and  yet  not  a  more  singular  one  than  that 


14, 

exhibited  in  the  proposition  which  it  would  seem  to  be  the  ob- 
ject of  the  communication  to  make,  viz:  that  certain  '^gambhng 
houses"  be  licensed,  with  heavy  penalties,  ifcc,  to  those  who 
game  elsewhere. 

Let  us  examine  this  briefly,  and  then  close  this  long  article. 
We  must  legalize  gambling,  as  the  French  and  Germans,  with 
their  notorionsly  low  moral  tone,  have  done.  We  must  legalize 
it,  as  these  two  infidel  nations  of  Europe  have  done,  for  they 
are,  perhaps,  the  only  two  distinctively  infidel  countries  on  that 
continent,  and  we,  in  the  youth  of  our  nation,  or  rather  infancy, 
must  begin  by  imitating  them.  We  must  follow  France,  stand- 
ing as  she  does  on  the  thin  crust  of  a  social  volcano,  and  Ger- 
many, the  confessed  fountain  of  modern  infidelity  in  religion 
and  morals.  By  way  of  giving  a  healthful  moral  impetus  to  the 
conscience  of  tlie  young  nation,  we  must  walk  in  these  illus- 
trious footsteps.  We  must  legalize  "a  vice  of  no  ordinary  mag- 
nitude," until  our  fame  as  gamblers  rise  out  of  obscurity,  into 
world-wide  notoriety,  as  these  French  and  Germans  have  emerged 
to  their  bad  eminence.  If  the  writer  of  this  proposition  had 
wanted  to  encumber  it  with  odium,  he  could  not,  perhaps,  have 
adopted  a  more  effectual  method  of  doing  so,  than  by  telling  the 
readers  of  the  Whig  that  this  law  he  recommends  is  a  law  in 
Germany  and  a  law  in  France. 

We  must  "^legalize  gambling."  We  forbid  murder,  robbery, 
slander,  drunketniess,  profane  swearing,  fraud  and  other  vices, 
but  perhaps  we  have  made  a  terrible  mistake  all  this  while. 
Certain  houses  ought  to  have  been  regularly  qualified  by  law, 
in  which  these  crimes  could  have  been  committed  with  legal 
sanction,  and  money,  too,  accrue  to  the  municipal  authorities 
from  the  proprietors  of  these  establishments.  Is  not  this,  Mr. 
Editor,  the  first  time,  in  the  history  of  this  vice  in  this  country, 
that  it  has  been  proposed  to  diminish  it  by  making  it  absolutely 
a  lawful  act?  Would  it  not  relieve  this  practice  of  at  least  nine- 
tenths  of  its  odium?  Who  that  reflects  a  single  moment  can 
doubt  this?  And  who  that  loves  'this  nation  would  not  tremble 
to  see  this  vice  taken  under  the  protection  of  her  laws  and  go- 
vernors? Let  this  thing  be  done,  sir,  and  steel  does  not  more 
surely  draw  the  lightning  of  the  skies,  than  would  such  an  act 
attract  the  wrathful  curse  of  the  Lord  Jehovah. 

This  writer  believes  that,  if  his  proposal  was  adopted,  and 
gambling  in  unlicensed  houses  made  a  felony,  the  vice  would 
be  diminished,  and  free-born,  high-spirited  men  would  no  longer 
be  compelled  to  "  slink  in  and  out,"  by  night,  at  the  back  doors 
of  gaming  houses.  Tins  whole  proposition,  Mr.  Editor,  is  very 
summarily,  but  logically,  disposed  of.  These  men,  who  thus 
furtively  frequent  gaming  places,  do  not  "^shnk  out  and  in," 
because  these  house?  are' unlicensed  houses;  but  principally  for 


15 

the  reason  that  they  are  "gaming  ho'iises."'  They  do  not  want 
to  be  recognized  as  gamesters,  because  it  is  a  disrepntable  thing. 
And,  although  to  legahze  gaming  liouses  would  take  away  a 
large  share  of  the  odium  whicli  adheres  to  tliis  practice,  still  any 
person  who  should  gamble,  and  at  tlie  same  time  have  a  sensi- 
tive regard  to  his  reputation  generally,  and  as  a  sate  business 
man  niore  particularly,  would  j^et  enter  these  lawful  gaming 
honses  with  a  stealthy  tread,  and  that  after  the  shades  of  nio-llt 
have  fallen  on  the  earth.  Make  unlicensed  gaming  a  felony, 
and  you  Avill  prevent  men  from  daring  to  have  im/ice7ised  gmmn»' 
honses.  This  will  deter  men  from  keeping  such  houses,  he  tells 
us,  and  thus  you  will  diminish  gambling.  This  admission,  Mr. 
Editor,  causes  the  whole  proposal  to  dwindle  into  nothing,  and 
vanish  like  vapor  before  the  sun. 

1  take  my  leave  of  the  sul)ject,  simply  remarking,  that  if  men 
would  be  deterred  from  keeping  unlicensed  gaming  houses,  by 
fear  of  the  penalty  allached  to  a  felony,  they  would  be  deterred 
trom  keeping  any  gaming  estabhshments  at  all,  if  the  act  was 
by  law  a  felony,  to  be  followed,  of  course,  by  its  appropriate 
punishment. 

Buchanan,  Botetourt  County,  Va.  W.  M. 


To  the  Whig's  Correspondent  W.  M.:' 
Lord  Byron  it  was,  I  believe,  who  said,  sir, 

"  A  man  must  serve  his  time  to  every  trade 
Save  censure — critics  are  already  made;" 

and  after  having  given  to  your  attempt  at  a  reply  in  the  Whig  of 
Thursday,  to  my  article  on  the  suppression  of  gambling,  in  the 
Whig  of  the  Tth  ultimo,  an  attentive  and  disjKik-ionate^penisal, 
T  regret  that  [  am  not  able  to  resist  the  involuntary  concluslori 
that  your  brain  is  pregnant  with  the  idea  that  you  are  ordained 
from  on  high,  to  be  one  of  the  "ready  made"— that  it  is  not  to 
moral  reformation,  but  to  an  immoral,  because  a  vain  glorious 
pedantry  to  which  you  have  dedicated  your  facile  ppu— that 
you  had  rather  shine  temporarily  as  a  superficial  reviewer,  than 
to  toil  quietly  in  the  moral  vinyard  as  a  substantial  reformer, 
and  I  do  sincerely  regret  that  talents  such  as  yours  should  fall 
under  the  bliglit  of  such  a  conceit.  Why,  sir,  gambling  itself  is 
not  more  utterly  destructive  of  all  those  finer  sensibdiiies  in- 
digenous to  the  genial  regions  of  a  generous  bosom,  than  is  this 
self  same  ill  natured  pro|)ensity  f>^r  carping  criticism.  A  liltlo 
ephemeral  reputation  itiiiay  gain  for  yon, 

"  But  o<li !  it  hardens  a'  within 
And  perlifieb  the  feeling!" 


^6 

^  The  man  of  genius  who  descends  to  it^  mu^t,  sooner  or  later, 
dwindle  into  a  mere 

"  Snapper  up  of  unconsidered  trifles." 

Fastidious  quibbling  and  cavelling,  never  can  facilitate  moral 
reformation.  When  a  material  fact  is  stated  in  a  controversy, 
the  disputant  asserting  it  is  always  expected  to  be  ready  with  his 
proof  to  establish  it  whenever  it  is  traversed,  but  as  it  is  beneath 
the  dignity  of  argument  and  at  war  with  the  policy  of  logic,  to 
fret  over  immaterial  issues,  it  is  but  rarely  you  will  ever  find  a 
veteran  polemic  guilty  of  that  blunder,  and  when  you,  sir, 
called  on  me  for  the  proof  that  men  did  gamble  before  the  flood, 
I  saw  in  a  twinkling,  that  you  belonged  to  that  restive  class  of 
writers 

'•  Who  had  rather  on  a  gibbet  dangle, 
Than  miss  their  dear  delight  to  wrangle." 

What  boots  it,  sir,  whether  gambling  had  its  origin  prior  or 
subsequent  to  the  deluge,  when  it  is  bound  to  be  admitted  by 
yourself  that  its  origin  is  of  immemorial  antiquity.  You  dis- 
tract attention  here  from  the  iniquity  of  the  vice,  which  is  of 
vast  moment,  and  attract  it  to  the  date  of  its  origin,  which  is  of 
trivial  consequence,  wherein  you  remind  one  of  that  great 
stickler  for  style,  who,  it  was  once  said,  by  a  celebrated  SoiUh- 
ern  Statesman,  would,  to  round  a  period,  d — n  his  grandmother; 
when  you  are  luxuriating  in  a  pet  propensity,  you  are  reckless 
of  the  moral  consequences.  You  point  to  the  flood,  however, 
and  call  for  my  proof.  Welt,  you  shall  have  it.  As  a  matter  of 
course,  you  will  not  expect  me  to  produce  upon  the  stand  a 
living  witness.  If  there  are  any  antediluvians  in  these  parts, 
they  are,  most  probably,  widows  or  bachelors,  and  too  sensitive 
about  their  age  to  admit  that  they  know  anything  Avhatever 
about  customs  and  habits  that  obtained  in  those  days,  but  if 
back  to  that  long  wet  spell  we  must  go,  you  must  make  up  your 
mind  to  uavel  down  the  highway  of  ages  by  the  lamp  of  his- 
tory, and  then  grope  your  way  to  Noah's  ark,  by  whatever  light 
those  sparks  make,  which,  for  over  six  thousand  years,  have 
been  emitted  from  the  furnaces  of"  human  nature.  Let  us  take 
our  lamp,  then,  and  thread  our  way  at  once  to  the  tent  of  God- 
frey, when,  at  the  head  of  an  army  of  200,000  men,  in  the  year 
1095,  he  marched  against  Jerusalem,  and  we  shall  find  him 
playing  a  game  of  chess  for  a  wager.  Intermit,  then,  if  you 
please,  1500  years,  and  swing  out  your  lamp  again  over  the 
oracular  groves  of  Delphi,  and  you  will  find  that  there,  about 
the  time  the  inspired  prophet  Jeremiah  died,  the  Pythean  games 
were  established,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Athenian  sage  Solon. 
Then  turn  your  face  again  towards  the  flood,  and  let  the  light  of 


17 

your  lamp  fall  upon  the  walls  of  Corinth,  and  you  will  find  that, 
in  that  city,  1326  years  before  the  Star  of  Bethlehem  had  risen, 
Sisyphus  the  reigning  king,  instituted  the  Isthmian  games,  and 
if  you  will  then  go  to  Elis,  you  will  find  that  the  very  same 
Olympic  games,  wliich  that  wise  law-giver,  Lycurgus,  centuries 
subsequently  restored  in  the  same  city,  were,  1453  years  before 
the  birth  of  Christ,  instituted   by  Ida^i   Daetyli.     Now,  what 
were  these  games.     History  informs  us  that  they  consisted  of 
chariot  races,  horse  races,  toot  races,  wrestling,  boxing,  quoit 
pitching,  cV^c.  tS:c.,  in  which  the  victor  bore  olF  a  prize.     Some 
times  it  was  one  thing,  some  times  it  was  another,  just  precisely 
as  jockey  clubs  in  these  days  sometimes  give  a  purse  and  at 
other  times  a  pitcher  or  a  cup.     Who  has  not  heard  of  the  Derby 
Stake  and  the  Goodwood  Cup?     Well,  is  it  gambling  to  enter  a 
liorse  for  a  stake  at  New  Market  or  Fairfield,  and,  if  he  wins, 
pocket  the  tin.     If  it  is  not,  the  contestants  at  Elis,  Corinth  and 
Delphi  did  not  gamble;  but,  if  it  is,  they  did;  and  why,  I  ask, 
did  Cappadocia  acquire  so  much  fame  for  the  cultivation  of  fleet 
horses,  if  nothing  was  to  be  made  out  of  their  speed.     History 
also  informs  us  that  these  games  were  witnessed  by  thousands  of 
excited  people.     Do  you  believe,  sir,  that  there  ever  was  a  foot, 
chariot  or  horse  race,  witnessed  at  any  period  in  this  world's 
history,  by  thousands  of  excited  men,  on  which  nothing  was 
bet?     If  sincerely  you  do,  I  must  turn  over  your  amazing  ver- 
dancy to  the  protection  of  Providence,  for  it  is  greatly  to  be  ap- 
prehended that  no  other  power  is  competent  to  take  care  of  it. 
Look  into  the  history  of  our  fallen  race,  and  you  will  find  that, 
from  that  early  hour  in  the  gray  dawn  of  creation,  in  which  the 
choral  song  of  the  morning  stars  first  broke  upon  the  cradled 
slumbers  of  a  new-born  world,  down  to  the  present  moment, 
the  virtues  that  have  adorned  and  ennobled,  and  the  vices  that 
have  degraded  and  destroyed  the  human  race,  have  been  in  the 
self-same,  identical  virtues  and   vices.     That  same  devouring 
and  insatiable  passion  to  clutch  gold,  that  same  opum  furiata 
cvpido  which  makes  millions  of  reckless  gamblers  to-day,  has 
existed  in  all  of  its  infernal  intensification  in  all  ages  of  time. 
Dispute  it  if  you  dare;  disjirove  it  if  you  can.    An  absolute  free- 
man never  yet  breathed  the  vital  air  of  Heaven.     Every  man's 
bosom  is  the  throne  of  more  or  less  passion,  and  all  men  are,  to 
a  greater  or  less  extent,  the  slave's  of  these  despotic  passions. 
If,  then,  these  passions   have  been   in  all  ages  the  same,  I  nmst 
insist  that  there  is  no  fair  escape  from  the  corollary  that  the  same 
propensities,  which  are  born  of  these  passions  to-day,  must  have 
been  the  natural  ofl'spring  of  the  same  passions  long  before  that 
big  shower  ever  fell.     Admit  this  proposition,  and  you  settle  the 
fact,  not  only  that  spectators  gambled  on  the  Olympic,  Isthmian 
and  Pythean  games,  but  you  finally  settle  the  tiood  business, 
3 


18 

too.  Deny  it,  and  that  fact  must  settle  you.  So,  if  you  aire 
fond  of  liorns,  I  am  happy  to  be  able  to  congratulate  you  that 
you  are  about  to  get  one.  Utrum  horum  mavis  occipe.  Pray, 
sir,  how  do  you  account  for  the  strange  fact  that  Noah  did  not 
land  one  of  his  sons  on  the  Western  hemisphere. 

There  is  but  one  rational  way  to  accouut  for  it.  Ham,  being 
a  negro,  was  no  doubt  given  to  understand  that  Africa  would  be 
his  legacy,  and  the  balance  of  the  Eastern  Hemisphere  was 
given  to  one  of  the  white  boys,  and  the  whole  of  the  Western 
given  to  the  other.  Allow  me  now  to  inquire  did  you  ever 
make  a  sea  voyage?  If  you  never  did  I  am  afraid  you  will  not 
appreciate  the  solution  that  follows.  The  fact  is,  the  dark  and 
dismal  monotony  of  unbroken  dullness  that  reigns  over  the 
broad  surface  of  mid  ocean  sets  over  the  decks  of  a  ship  like  a 
juggling  devil,  mocking  the  burning  thirst  of  the  restive  passen- 
gers, who  are  continually  straining  their  ingenuity  to  invent 
some  means  whereby  they  may  be  able  to  get  only  one  drop  of 
the  fresh,  pure  waters  of  excitement  to  cool  their  parching 
tongues.  Undersuchcircumstances,  they  play  ''fox  and  geese," 
''hull  gull,"  "crack  lieu,"  "odd  oreven,"  "heads and  tails," 
"old  sledge,"  or  any  and  everything  else  they  can  play.  Well, 
irom  all  accounts,  that  must  have  been  a  lonesome  time  Noah 
and  his  family  had  floating  over  the  dreary  waste  of  shoreless 
waters,  and  is  it  not  quite  probable  that  Shem  and  Japheth  re- 
solved that  they  would  have  a  little  excitement,  and  played  "crack 
lieu"  fir  the  whole  of  the  old  man's  estate,  and  the  one  who 
was  only  to  have  had  the  Eastern  Hemisphere  won  the  Western, 
and  as  he  did  not  at  that  time  have  force  enough  to  clear  and 
fence  in  this  neck  of  woods,  he  no  doubt  concluded  to  let  it  lay 
out  for  a  while;  and  the  brothers  pretending  that  there  was  no 
special  necessity  for  their  separation  at  tl)at  time,  persuaded  their 
good  old  father  to  land  at  Ararat,  and  he  did.  But  you  call  on 
me  also  for  the  proof  that  Barsabas  and  Matthias  were  rival  can- 
didates, &c.  Well,  it  seems  that  they  had  both  been  with  our 
Saviour  and  Disciples  "all  the  lime  he  went  in  and  out  among 
them."  They  both  knew  of  the  vacancy,  and  if  they  both  did 
not  want  it  why  were  their  names  bf)th  given  forth  in  lots?  If 
nobody  wanted  it  why  did  they  put  in  only  those  two  names? 
It  is  not  usual  for  candidates  to  announce  their  own  postulancy 
or  be  presoit  when  their  nomhiation  occurs.  Such  matters  are 
still  managed  in  these  days  precisely  as  they  were  in  those — not 
personally,  but  by  proxy;  and  while  it  is  a  compliment  to  their 
modesty  that  they  were  not  present  when  their  lots  were  cast,  it 
does  not  follow  that  they  did  not  know  all  about  it,  and  respec- 
tively desire  success.  But  when  we  look  into  the  matter  we 
find  that  there  is  just  as  much  evidence  that  they  were  present 
as  there  is  that  they  were  absent.     Where,  sir,  is  your  evidence 


19 

that  they  were  not  pveseiit?  You  say  they  did  not  gamble  for 
it.  I  say  they  did.  Tiiey  submitted  their  names  to  the  arbitra- 
ment of  chance.  Th^ir  respectii'e  chances  for  success  were 
staked  one  against  the  other — Barsabas  lost,  Matthias  won. 
But  you  say  it  was  not  gambling  because  it  wanted  the  cardinal 
ingredient  of  gambling,  to  wit:  the  getting  of  something  for 
nothing.  That  is  not  a  sound  general  position  in  the  first  place, 
and  if  it  is,  it  may  not  in  the  second  place  be  true  in  this  in- 
stance, for  it  may  have  been  the  only  means  by  which  Matthias 
could  have  gotten  that  office  at  all;  and  if  it  was,  ho  did  get 
something  for  nothing.  But  you  say  gambling  consists  in  the 
obtaining  of  one  man's  money  by  another  without  consideration. 
What  is  a  consideration?  Law-writers  say  it  is  that  which  one 
man  gives  of  one  thing  in  exchange  for  another  thing.  In  the 
commercial  world  there  is  known  what  is  technically  termed 
chances,  and  when  a  speculator  purchases  one  of  these  chances 
the  courts  have  always  held  that  the  chance  ions  a  legal  and 
valuable  consideration;  and  whenever  a  man  stakes  five  hun- 
dred dollars  upon  the  turn  of  a  card,  which,  if  it  comes  his  way, 
wins  that  sum  for  him,  and  which  is  liable  to  win  or  lose,  he  has 
simply  purchased  a  chance  to  make  five  hundred  dollars  by 
risking,  not  paying,  that  sum  for  it.  Do  you  reply  that  the 
chance  is  not  worth  the  price  paid  for  it?  I  will  answer  you 
with  the  old  Latin  maxim,  "  Tantum  bona  volent,  quantum  vcndi 
pessunt.     (^Things  are  worth  just  as  much  as  they  will  sell  for.) 

You  altogether  misapprehend  my  allusion  to  Clay,  Prentiss, 
Fox  and  Sheridan.  I  did  not  say  that  because  such  men  gam- 
bled it  could  not  be  put  down,  or  that  they  popularized  it.  I 
referred  to  their  indulgence  as,  not  a  cau^e,  but  an  evidence,  of 
its  popularity ,  as  well  as  to  illustrate  the  power  of  its  fascination, 
and  ergo,  its  capacity  to  resist  a  war  upon  it.  For  surely,  if  it 
could  subdue  such  giant  intellects  as  those  men  had,  it  will  be 
a  vain  piece  of  presumption  in  men  of  less  intellectual  strength, 
to  attempt  and  expect  to  subdue  it.  Therefore,  you  got  in  on 
Fox's  shirt  bosom,  his  mistress,  and  his  general  habits  of  de- 
bauchery, at  the  wrong  time  and  place;  and,  sir,  1  respectfully 
inquire  of  you,  why  did  you  insert  and  comment  on  only  a  part 
of  my  quotation  from  the  lips  of  Brutus?  Why  did  you  not 
complete  it,  and  deny  that  when  men  of  rank  gamble  '^  chastise- 
ment" dees  'therefore  hide  its  head?"  This  is  a  sad,  and  yet 
incontrovertible  truth;  and  yet,  your  avenging  thunders  sleep! 
Why?  Will  you  leave  echo  to  answer  why?  Fear  you  not 
that  our  readers  will  say  of  you,  if  you  do,  '<  he  was  called  into 
court,  put  on  the  witness  stand,  and  when  asked  a  direct  and 
plain  question,  lo!  nil  dicit. 

Your  next  slip  up  is  literally  astounding.     What  do  you  mean 
by  asserting  that  public  opinion  has   put  down  gambling  for 


20 

money,  among  females?  That  may  be  true,  in  good  old  Bote- 
tourt. 1  doubt  very  miicli  whether  the  cultivated  gentlewomen 
of  any  portion  of  Virginia,  or  any  one  of  the  Confederate  States, 
ever  did  gamble,  and  1  trust  they  never  will;  but  nothing  is 
more  notorious,  than  that  at  Saratoga  Springs,  there  is  a  lady's 
Ronletl  room,  where  gambling  has  raged  for  years.  It  was  kept 
by  a  man  whose  name  was  Gridley.  Where  have. you  been, 
and  what  have  you  read  for  several  years  past,  that  you  could 
have  stumbled  upon  such  an  egregious  error?  Visit  the  fash- 
ionable summer  resorts  of  Europe,  and  you  will  find  and  see 
that  the  Avomen  gamble  more  to-day  than  they  did  before  the 
satire  of  Addison  was  \vrittcn;  aye,  even  while  that  same  pas- 
quinade is  staring  them  in  the  face,  from  the  eagle-eyed  pages  of 
the  Spectator.  Read  the  "Souveners"  of  oar  accomplished 
and  universally  admired  and  beloved  country  woman,  Madam 
Le  Vert,  and  yon  will  find  that  she  paints  a  picture  of  female 
gambling,  at  Baden  Baden,  from  which  the  good  and  gentle 
ought  to" shrink  with  horror.  Female  gambling  in  the  17th  cen- 
tury was  confined  to  the  nobility  and  private  parties;  Avhereas 
now  women  in  Europe  visit  public  gaming  houses  and  fight  the 
"Tiger"  like  wild  cats.     Funny  triumph,  that  of  Addison's. 

Again,  you  entirely  misconstrue  my  interrogatory,  <^  when 
and  where  was  gambling  ever  put  down?"  and  treat  the  mat- 
ter precisely  as  you  ought  to  have  treated  it  if  1  had  asserted 
gambling  could  not  and  ought  not  to  be  put  down.  Whereas,  I 
am  absolutely  advocating  the  only  policy  by  which  it  ever  has 
been  or  ever  can  be  diminished.  Put  douui,  1  seriously  appre- 
hend it  never  can  be,  and,  I  may  say,  I  know  it  never  can  as 
long  as  it  is  not  licensed.  You  sneer  contemptuously  at  my 
reference  to  France  and  Germany,  and  denounce  them  as  infidel 
nations.  T  deny  that  they  are  infidel  nations;  but  if  they  are, 
is  it  not  a  burning,  blasting  commentary  upon  the  holloAv  and 
impotent  laws  of  your  own  christian  country,  that  if  a  gentleman 
sits  down  to  enjoy  an  evenmg's  amusement  at  a  card  table,  he 
may  be  swindled  "out  of  thousands,  without  having  open  to  him 
any  form  of  redress  he  can  honorably  invoke,  whereas,  if  he 
loses  one  ])enny  among  the  infidels,  by  foul  means,  their  laws 
immediately  interpose,  and  promptly  restore  it.  Pray,  sir,  how 
much  do  you  make  then  by  your  infidelity  sensation?  13ut  I 
find  I  shall  be  compelled  to  resume  the  discussion  to-morrow; 
when  I  shall  do  what  you  have  not  yet  thought  proper  to  do, 
that  is  come  down  in  warm  earnest  upon  gambling  and  gam- 
blers, and  prove,  as  I  think  I  clearly  can,  sir,  that  instead  of  as- 
sailing this  vice,  you  are  encouraging  and  fostering  it  in  all  its 
most  revolting  putridity  and  iniquity,  and  that  nine  gamblers 
out  of  every  ten  sympathize  with  you,  and  against 

ERSKINE. 


21 

To  W.  M.: 

When  you  make  random  assertions,  insusceptible  of  proof,  as 
you  did  when  you  branded  Prance  and  Germany  witli  national 
infidelity,  and  declared  that  female  g:ambling  had  been  put  down  ; 
and  when  you  deny  facts  insusceptible  of  refutation,  as  you  did 
when  you  denied  that  gambling  is  a  "  pet  passion  of  the  mil- 
lion," you  excite  in  my  mind  the  suspicion  that  you  are  young 
and  reckless:  and,  inasmuch  as  you  have  drawn  your  blade  on 
the  side  of  the  gamblers,  I  find  vague  spectral  fears  creeping  into 
my  bnsom  that  that  diabolical  serpent  that  has  charmed  and 
mined  so  many  jiromising  young  men,  by  making  them  gam- 
blers, is  about  to  throw  over  your  brilliant  genius  its  fatal  spell. 
The  splendid  intellect  with  which  nature  has  endowed  you  has 
carried  off  my  heart  injto  captivity,  and  I  cannot  resist  the  incli- 
nation of  my  ardent  temperament  to  commune  with  you  affec- 
tionately and  frankly.  And  let  me  connnence  by  imploring  you 
to  turn  your  face  and  your  pen  against  gambling.  If  you  play 
and  lose  you'll  he  nicknamed  a  booby,  and  if  you  play  and  win 
you'll  be  suspected  a  scoundrel.  Always  when  you  lose  you 
will  pay  your  losses,  and  often  when  you  win  you  will  never 
collect  your  winnings.  You  will  often  have  to  play  with  men 
whose  vulgar  exultation  when  they  beat  you  will  disgust  you, 
and  whose  terrific  profanity  when  you  beat  them  must  shock 
you.  The  excitement  gambling  produces  is  not  natural,  there- 
fore the  result  upon  your  physical  condition  cannot  be  salutary. 
While  playit)g,  yon  will  often  have  to  breath  the  fetid  atmosphere 
of  a  close  room,  and  forfeit  that  repose  and  exercise  necessary  to 
health,  happiness  and  longevity,  the  sequel  of  which  is  almost 
certain  to  be  a  shattered  constitution,  premature  old  age  and  an 
ignonunious  grave.  This  counsel  I  should  not  have  given  you 
but  for  the  fact  that  I  have  taken  a  fancy  to  you,  and  you  know 
"out  of  the  abundance  of  the  heart  the  mouth  speaketh,"  and 
but  for  the  additional  fact  that  this  opposition  of  yours  to  licens- 
ing gambling  amounts  not  only  to  an  advocacy  of  gambling, 
but  to  a  vindication  of  the  very  lowest  and  basest  class  of  gam- 
blers. I  have  already  told  you  that  your  sentiments  on  this  sub- 
ject are  popular,  and  that  mine  are  unpopular,  among  the  gam- 
blers; and  sir,  this  is  literally  tnie.  There  are  in  New  Orleans 
about  110  gambling  establishments,  and  when  they  were  called 
upon,  not  long  since,  to  vote  for  and  against  licensing  gambling, 
but  two  houses  voted  for  it.  Put  the  same  question  before  the 
gamblers  of  Kirhmond  to-morrow,  and  they  will  vote  it  down  by 
an  overwhelming  majority.  The  day  your  article  appeared  the 
Whiix  ^^'as  in  unusual  demand  among  the  gamblers,  and,  I  have 
heard  repeatedly  since,  that  they  wen^  profoundly  delighted  with 
the  signal  ability  with  which  you  defended  their  interests.  "  Who 
is  W.  M.?"     '  "Huzza  for  \V.  M.!"     ''  W.  M.'s  the  man  for  my 


money,"  were  the  kind  of  compliments  that  were  freely  lavished 
upon  you  that  day  in  the  grogshops  that  class  patronize,  and 
your  health  was  drunk  a  thousand  and  one  times,  my  dear  sir, 
until  the  J03'  of  the  revellers  was  put  to  sleep  by  the  potency  of 
their  potations;  and  if  you  Avere  to  visit  the  city  to-morrow,  and 
that  fact  should  become  known  to  them  they  would  be  certain 
to  serenade  you,  if  they  did  not  call  upon  you  in  a  body  and  ten- 
der you  a  supper  ?  Would  you  accept  it?  I  hope  not.  In  truth, 
I  cannot  bring  myself  to  a  realization  of  the  fact  that  between 
you  and  them  there  is  any  collusion.  Nay,  I  scorn  to  believe  it; 
and  1  cheerfully  retract  the  imputation  made  against  you  in  the 
insinuation  that  you  had  drawn  your  blade  on  the  side  of  the 
gamblers;  and  while  1  deplore  the  result  of  your  article,  I  will 
acquit  you  of  a  sinister  motive,  and  if  you  are  innocent,  as  on 
my  soul  I  believe  you  are,  of  any  thing  resembling  a  friendly 
purpose  towart^Alie  sporting  gentry,  you  will  be  at  a  loss  to  divine 
the  cause  of  yo'ur  sudden  and  marvellous  popularity  among  that 
class.  Proceeding,  then,  upon  the  presumption  that  you  are  inno- 
cent of  the  desire  and  ignorant  of  the  cause  of  your  popularity, 
I  will  with  alacrity  explain  it  to  you.  Then,  sir,  you  must  know 
that  gambling,  like  all  other  avocations,  is  pursued  by  two  dis- 
tinct classes  of  men.  One  class,  and  it  is  much  the  largest,  are, 
in  their  moral  status,  very  little  above  thieves  and  cut-throats. 
They  occupy  the  same  level  with  highwaymen,  in  some  respects, 
^nd  fall  infinitely  below  them  in  others.  They  have  their  cun- 
ning and  their  cupidity,  but  they  lack  their  courage  and  their 
chivalry. 

They  have  in  their  faro  boxes  what  are  called  "snakes,"  and 
drugged  liquors  on  their  sideboards.  They  deal  marked  cards 
and  turn  for  more  money  than,  if  they  were  to  lose,  they  could 
pay.  They  have  in  their  employ  "  pensioned  pimps,"  who 
might,  I  think,  be  more  properly  designated  human  slough 
hounds,  whose  business  it  is  to  hunt  down  "old  suckers"  and 
"young  green-horns"  for  customers,  and  then  they  have  hired 
"  cappers,"  who,  when  the  customer  is  roped,  "  starts  the  game." 
In  the  larger  cities  it  is  said  that  their  cubile  ferarwni  are  full  of 
sensation  traps,  which,  when  they  set  to  phizzing,  will  involunta- 
rily attract  attention,  during  which  moment  the  silent  partners  of 
the  concern,  who  are  at  their  post,  make  a  clean  sweep  of  all  the 
checks  lying  about  loose — and  this  is  the  class,  my  dear  sir,  who 
were  thrown  into  ecstacies  by  your  able  article.  License  gam- 
bUng  and  you  seal  up  hermetically  forever  the  faro  boxes  of  all 
such  thieving  scoundrels.  The  tax  they  cannot  pay,  the  bond 
they  cannot  give,  and  therefore  their  coupe-gorges  they  cannot 
(Open.  And  those  who  could  and  would  pay  the  tax  and  give 
•  the  bond  would  necessarily  become  a  police  to  enforce  the  law, 
whom  those  who  violated  it  could  never  elude,  but  no  such  a  pQ- 


^3 

lice  would  eVfer  be  needed  if  it  were  made,  as  it  ought  to  be,  a 
felony  to  visit  and  bet  in  an  unlicensed  establishment,-  You  at- 
tempted to  make  an  ari^ument  about  such  a  provision  amounting 
to  a  restriction  upon  human  liberty,  in  that  it  might  require  a 
man  to  walk  or  ride  farther  than  might  be  agreeable  to  his  feel- 
ings to  find  a  licensed  esiahlishmeut  It  was  bad  enough  in  you 
to  offer  such  a  statement  for  an  argument.  Were  I  to  give  it  the 
■aittention  of  an  answer  I  should  become  a  fit  subject,  not  for  the 
sport  of  laughter,  but  the  charily  of  commisseration. 

But  there  is  another  class  of  gamblers  entitled  to  a  place  in 
this  picture.  It  is  that  class  who  are  in  favor  of  making  cheat- 
ing and  swindling  in  gambling  houses  felonies,  and  who  are  also 
in  favor  of  making  gamblmg  a  source  of  revenue  to  the  govern- 
ment. Among  them  are  to  be  found  gentlemen  occupying  a  firm 
and  high  position  in  private  and  public  confidence.  Mr.  Burns, 
dt  Baltimore,  Md.,  one  of  them,  represented  a  large  Southern 
city  at  Cincinnatti  when  Buchanan  was  nominated  in  '56  and  at 
Charleston  in  '(50,  when  the  Convention  failed  to  make  a  nomina- 
tion. From  the  acquaintances  of  that  gentlen)an  f  have  learned 
the  fact  that  he  wields  as  nuich  moral  influence  at  home  as  any 
other  unpretending  private  citizen,  and  that  he  has  given  more 
money  to  build  churches  and  relieve  the  poor  within  the  last  ten 
years  than  any  other  one  man  on  the  continent,  and  that  he  is 
thoroughly  in  otio  et  ncgotio  probus  (upright  in  business  and  out 
of  business.) 

In  the  city  of  Augusta,  Ga.,  there  resides  a  gambler*,  a  more 
elegant  gentleman  than  whom  no  civilized  country  under  the 
sun  can  produce.  In  his  appearance,  deportment,  general  edu- 
cation, sentiments  and  feelings  he  is  a  thorough  and  perfect  gen- 
tleman. 

Poor  Prindle,  'Mie  sleeps  his  last  sleep,"  but  when  he  was  a 
sojourner  in  <Mhis  vale  of  tears,"  he  would,  if  he  could,  have 
dried  every  tear  in  the  vale.  H(!  was  the  boon  companion  of  the 
foremost  men  of  the  age.  In  dealing  with  men  he  was  notonlj'' 
liberally  honorable,  but  scrupulously  honest.  lie  could  always' 
borrow  anybody's  money  and  all  they  had.  In  his  benevolence 
he  was  a  philanthropist,  and  in  his  nuinificence  he  was  a  Prince. 
Among  the  churches  and  the  poor  he  scattered  his  dollars  like  a 
husbaixlman  in  se«;d-time  scatt^reth  liis  grain.  A  thousand  here, 
and  a  thousand  there,  was  nothing;  for  him  to  give.  He  did  it 
often,  and  always  frcelv.  He  lived  a  gambler,  and  died  a  aam- 
bler;  but  his  njcmory  jingf^reth  among  mau  and  will  not  depart. 
Why?  If  h.is  not  been  Ion?  since  a  young  gambler  died  in  \'ir- 
glnia,  who  graduated  with  the  first  honors  of  our  first  Universi- 
ties, and  whose  accomplishments  ranked  him  among  the  ripest 

•  Wiley  Barron. 


24 

scholars  of  the  age.  In  this  city,  I  am  told,  there  resides  at  this 
time  a  professional  gambler,*  whose  literary  attainments  and  col- 
loquial gifts  pre-eminently  fit  him  to  ornament  and  delight  the 
most  cultivated  society  in  Christendom,  and  others  \vhose  esta- 
blished integrity  commands  universal  respect  and  confidence. 
They,  too,  have  given  to  the  poor,  to  the  army  hospitals,  and  to 
churches,  dollars  by  the  thousand.  Do  you  say  I  am  fast 
becoming  the  eulogist  of  gamblers?  I  deny  it.  I  am  merely* 
stating  facts,  the  veritable  existence  of  which  you  dare  not  deny 
and  cannot  refute.  If  their  existence  encumbers  the  path  of 
your  argument,  don't  blame  me^  for  I  did  not  create  them. 

"Thou  canst  not  say  I  did  it,  never  shake 
Thy  gory  locks  at  me." 

But  inasmuch  as  I  can  build  an  argument  upon  the  basis  which 
they  form,  I  had  both  a  moral  and  a  legal  right  to  refer  to  them; 
and  I  do  solemnly  assure  you  it  is  for  that  purpose  and  none 
other  that  I  have  referred  to  them  at  all.  They  are  not  only 
facts,  but  stubborn  facts,  and  stand  like  lions  in  the  path  you 
and  I  must  tread  when  we  attempt  to  put  down  gambling.  I 
have  not  mentioned  one  of  them  in  a  complimentary  spirit. 
1  have  merely  reluctantly  admitted  their  existence  in  a  business 
aspect,  because  they  stare  me  in  the  face,  and  must  be  con- 
fronted. I  have  assumed  that  gambling  cannot  be  directly  and  to- 
tally suppressed,  and  to  support  that  assumption  1  have  drawn 
the  above  truthful  picture  of  the  lives  and  habits  of  some  of  the 
men  who  gamble.  Such  men  always  have  had,  and  always  will 
have,  powerful  friends  and  hosts  of  them,  and  it  is  this  style  of 
men  who  popularize  gambling  and  make  it  an  irrepressible  evil 
in  the  land.  The  true  and  real  reason,  then,  why  gambling 
never  can  be  suppressed,  is  not  because  this  or  that  man  gambles, 
but  because,  in  the  first  place,  too  many  men  of  all  claisses  and 
conditions  in  society  are  too  fond  of  it,  and  in  the  second  place, 
because  this  class  of  gamblers  I  have  just  described  loill play  an 
honest  and  a  fair  game.  In  fact,  they  provide  lor  their  game 
such  checks  and  safeguards  as  renders  cheatery  and  fraud  a  phy- 
sical impossibility,  and  this  is  more  to  be  deplored  than  admired. 
Would  to  God  that  there  was  not  an  honest  gambler  on  earth, 
then  we  might  suppress  it;  but  as  there  are,  and  always  will  be, 
I  am  in  favor  of  making  them  all  so,  and  that  is  precisely  what 
you  oppose  when  you  oppose  the  legislative  regulations  I  have 
suggested.  PlainJy  and  bluntly  stated,  these  are  the  facts.  I 
say  if  we  must  have  gambling,  let  us  have  an  honest  game. 
You  say,  no;  if  gambling  cannot  be  put  down,  let  fraud,  cheat- 

*  Audrew  A.  Monteiro. 


25 

ing,  thieving,  and  villainy  in  it  abound  and  flourish.     At  least, 
this  must  be  the  result  of  what  you  do,  say  whatever  you  may. 

There  is  also  another  insuperable  obstacle  in  the  path  of 
reformation.  It  is  the  fact,  that  no  blow  is  aimed  .at  gai?}- 
bling,  but  only  at  gambling  irithcarrfs.  Horse-racing  for  money 
is  gambling,  and  is  tolerated  by  law.  Betting  on  elections  is 
gambling,  and  is  not  inhibited.  Lotteries  and  raffles  are  gam- 
bling, and  now,  while  I  am  writing,  the  pastors  and  deacons  of 
all  the  churches  in  New  Orleans  arc  getting  up  lotteries  and  raf- 
fles for  the  benefit  of  the  army  hospitals.  Is  it  right  to  suppress 
one  s|iecies  of  gambling  and  patronize  another?  Will  not  a 
voice  come  up  from  the  dust  in  which  the  one  is  trampled  cry- 
ing out  against  yon,  trumpet  tongued,  "Persecution,  persecu- 
tion! Shame,  shame!"  And  is  there  not  great  danger  if  you 
allow  men  to  gamble  in  one  way  and  forbid  it  in  another,  that, 
when  you  attempt  to  punish  a  culprit  for  gambling  in  his  way 
instead  of  yours,  the  strong  arm  of  public  sympathy  will  be 
stretched  forth  to  rescue  him  from  your  grasp.  Children  at  school 
despise  a  partial  tencher,  anH  the  grown-np  children,  called  the 
people,  will  not  tolerate  an  arbitrary  law  tiiat  discriminates  be- 
tween the  fancies  and  tastes  of  men,  and  titcij  are  ris^/it.  I  am 
opposed  to  this  mincing  business,  and  insist  that  the  whole  hog 
shall  be  put  througli. 

You  seem  to  have  a  great  passion  for  logic,  but  unfortunately 
your  fancy  fir  it  seems  to  outstrip  your  talent.  That  landed 
estate  argument  that  you  affected  to  imagine  was  a  felicitous  il- 
lustration, of  the  manner  in  which  Barsabas  and  Matthias  settled 
who  was  to  succeed  Judas,  and  the  Roman  soldiers  settled  who 
was  to  have  the  seamless  coat,  is  utterly  seemless  of  even  a  re- 
semblance to  a  parallel.  When  a  landed  estate  is  divided,  in 
the  way  you  stated,  among  heirs,  it  is  not  to  settle  who  gets  a 
lot  and  who  loses  one,  but  who  gets  which  lot.  They  are  all  of 
the  same  value,  and  nothing  is  risked  and  nothing  can  be  lost. 
Whereas  every  Roman  soldier  risked  his  claim  to  the  coat,  and 
all  but  one  lost,  Barsabas  and  Mathias,or  their  friends  for  them, 
risked  their  respective  claims  to  the  apostleship,  and  Barsabas 
lost.  And  this,  sir,  is  the  true,  fidl,  legal,  and  only  correct,  de- 
finition of  gambling,  to  wit:  the  risk  the  bettor  takes,  and  risking 
is  always  gambling,  whether  it  be  life,  honors  or  property,  that 
is  at  stake. 

You  seem  to  be  electrified  with  aholy  horror  at  the  proposition 
which  you  say  will  relieve  gambling  of  its  odium.  Strange  in- 
fatuation this,  of  \  ours,  that  you  can  elevate  and  ennoble  a  young 
nation,  by  enh;incing  the  odium  and  increasing  the  ]X)pular  in- 
dulgence of  Its  irrepressible  vices.  When  you  lessen  the  num- 
ber of  gamblers,  are  you  not  bound  to  dmiinish,  ;prora/a,  gam- 
bling. License  gambling,  and  you  will  drive  out  of  the  busi- 
4 


26 

liess,  as  with  a  thong  of  scorpions,  nine  out  of  ten  who  now 
follow  it  for  a  liveliliood,  and  those  you  drive  out  will  be  the 
very  men  who  seduce  your  sons  and  mine  and  the  sons  of  our 
neighbors;  whereas,  the  more  honorable  class,  who  could  pay 
the  tax  and  obtain  a  license,  would  scorn  to  even  invite,  much 
less  persuade,  a  beardless  boy  to  bet,  and  many  ol'  them  would, 
as  I  am  told  they  repeatedly  have  done  peremptorily,  forbid  their 
admission  to  their  rooms.  And  now,  in  conclusion,  allow  me 
to  ask  you:  do  you  believe  cards  have  ever  done  among  sober 
men,  the  one-tenth  part  of  the  mischief  liquor  has  among  in- 
temperate n\en?  Yet,  in  this  young,  christian,  republic,  grog- 
shops are  licensed:  aye,  when  millions  upon  millions  are  annu- 
ally falling  around  you,  like  the  sere  and  yellow  leaves  fall  under 
auturnnal  blasts,  from  the  effects  of  the  slow  poisons  they  im- 
bibe in  these  Borgia  drain-shops.  In  these  Ferarar  hells,  hale 
constitutions  are  sapped,  the  promise  of  youth  is  blasted,  the 
hopes  of  age  are  crushed,  generous  hearts  are  broken  and  noble 
souls  are  lost.  Yet,  your  christian  laws  license  them,  and  that, 
too,  when  the  natiiral  result  of  it  is  to  multi[ily  druid\;u-ds,,£,'-«/7i.- 
blers,  and  murderers,  and  you  refuse  to  license  gambling,  when 
that  course  would  be  bound  to  diminish  it.  t'h  !  consistency, 
hypocrisy,  and  moral  cowardice,  where  are  your  blushes. 

ERSKINE. 


To  the  Editor  of  the  Whig: 

Some  ten  days  ago,  sir,  I  sent  you  a  communication,  in  re- 
ference to  an  article,  on  the  "suppression  of  gambling,"  which 
had  appeared  in  the  columns  of  the  Whig,  on  the  7th  ult.,  over 
the  pseudonym  of  "  Erskine."  I  had  no  desire  to  be  identified 
particularly  with  the  author  of  the  production  in  question,  and 
accordingly  addressed  you,  and,  through  yourself,  any  who 
might  feel  such  interest,  as  the  seriousness  of  the  subject  was 
calculated  to  inspire,  simply  making  the  observations  of  "Ers- 
kine" the  theme  of  argumentative  criticism.  In  that  article,  I 
was  studious  to  avoid  anything  which  the  most  sensitive  cour- 
tesy could  forbid.  I  was,  therefore,  somewhat  surprised  to  see 
in  a  day  or  so,  a  letter,  followed  next  day  by  a  second,  in  the 
PFAio-,  addressed  to  W.  M.  and  signed  "Erskine,"  in  which 
"  Erskine"  arrayed  himself  against  tne,  and  that  certainly  not  in 
the  most  refined  way.  Politer  terms  surely  might  have  been  dis- 
covered after  a  very  brief  search.  If  "Erskine"  is  not  satisfied 
with  the  force  of  my  logic  in  this  matter,  he  certainly  will,  in  his 
own  mind,  admit  what  ought  to  have  been  the  power  of  my 
example.     His  impatience,  as  soon  as  he  read  my  comments  oa 


2Y 

his  argument,  was  decidedly  interesting,  as  well  to  others,  as 
to  mj'-self,  for  the  simple  reason  that  it  caused  to  pass  before  the 
mental  eye,  the  image  of  a  breast  sticking  fnll  of  arrows,  not 
from  any  particular  skill  in  the  archer,  but  from  the  breadth,  and 
nearness  of  the  mark.  In  the  two  letters,  Avhich  "  Erskine" 
has  addressed  to  me,  he  has  not  succeeded  in  tugging  one  of 
these  arrows  from  his  grieved  bosom.  Althougli  he  sa5'-s  in  re- 
gard to  the  fine  tilings  he  writes  concerning  gamblers:  "I  do 
solemnly  assure  y<Hi,  it  is  for  that  purpose  (the  purpose  of  argu- 
ment) and  none  other,  that  I  have  referred  to  them  at  all,"  it  is 
still  most  evident,  Mr.  Editor,  that  the  effect  of  all  this  is  com- 
pliment to  gamesters.  "Erskine"  may  say,  he  does  not  mean 
this,  and  of  course  I  am  bound  to  believe  it,  as  he  tells  me  so, 
but  I  am  at  liberty  to  remember  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as 
''sinning  ignorantly,"  and  I  incline  to  the  opinion  that  the  in- 
telligent readers  of  the  Whig-,  who  were  not  deterred  by  the 
unique  and  ungracious  opening  of  ^'Erskine's"  letter  to  me 
from  giving  the  rest  of  it  a  perusal,  will  be  slow  to  think  that 
there  is,  at  all  events,  an  adequate  horror  of  gambling  where  the 
writer  has  so  high  an  opinion  of  the  colloquial  powers,  refine- 
ment and  universal  culture  of  these  daily  and  hourly  violators  of 
public  law,  these  main  stays  of  a  host  of  inferior  thieves,  these 
very  pcst.s  of  society.  Lovers  of  law  and  morality  do  not  gene- 
rally speak  in  this  strain,  and  when  a  writer  addresses  the  pub- 
lic, recommending  a  certain  measure  against  any  vice,  and  at 
the  same  time  uses  language  concerning  its  votaries,  to  which 
men  are  not  habituated,  he  is  entirely  mistaken  if  he  fancies 
they  can  be  easily  reconciled  to  his  proposal.  The  way  of  such 
a  reformer  is  through  a  liedge  of  thorns,  or  if  I  may  change  the 
language,  I  see  "  Erskine"  a-^saying  to  swing  against  a  broad, 
rapid  and  expanding  channel,  and  borne  away  exhausted  and 
terrified  towards  the  cataract  of  public  condemnation.  But  I 
must  not  stay  by  this  abyss. 

1  did  net  mean,  Mr.  Editor,  to  raise  an  ''immaterial  issue" 
when  1  asked  "Erskine"  ibr  the  proof  of  his  assertion  that, 
"before  the  flood,  Ciiance  was  a  (jod,  at  whose  altar  millions 
worshipped."  I  did  not  care  particularly  how  it  might  have 
been,  as  relates  to  the  argument,  not  thinking,  as  "Erskine" 
did,  thai  antiquity  adds  anything  to  the  dignity  of  a  vice!  I 
only  knew  that  there  was  no  particle  of  evidence  of  gaming 
having  gone  on,  in  the  antediluvian  era,  and  simply  designed, 
in  calling  for  his  proof,  (which,  of  course,  he  did  not  have,)  to 
throw  over  him,  like  a  mantle,  the  confession  of  having  made  a 
positive  statement,  which  was  entirely  without  foundation.  This 
Avas  my  chief  object,  and  ''Erskine"  is  welcome  to  the  result. 
Of  course  I  did  not  have  any  abstract  choice,  whether  gaming 
was  ancient  or  modern.     If  it  had  been  committed  prior  to  the 


28 

flood,  that  would  have  no  more  been  an  extenuation  of  it  than 
such  antiquity  could  diminish  the  gnilt  of  the  violence  and 
bloodshed  which,  as  we  are  informed,  then  prevailed.  My  ob- 
ject was  what  I  have  stated  it  to  be,  and  '^Erskine"  must  not 
blame  me,  or  the  truth-loving  readers  of  the  Whig,  if  we  re- 
member that,  at  least  in  one  instance,  he  has  shov/n  himself 
capable  of  making  a  random  assertion — one  having  its  origin  in 
a  mere  flight  of  his  swift  imagination. 

It  is  true,  sir,  that  ''Erskine"  proves  tlie  existence  of  the 
Isthmian,  Pythean  and  Olympic  games,  which  no  one  denied, 
but  the  earliest  of  them  had  no  being  for  over  a  thousand  years 
subsequent  to  the  flood.  I  criticised,  with  rather  an  unpleasant 
effect  on  the  mind  of  ^'Erskine,"  his  positive  averment  that 
millions  gamed  before  the  flood;  and  he  must  now  allow  me  to 
freshen  his  classical  reminiscences,  by  calling  his  attention  to  a 
very  prominent  feature  in  the  ancient  games,  which  was  that  the 
prize  on  the  various  occasions  was,  in  iisdf,  usnally,  if  not 
always,  worthless.  If  "Erskine"  had  read  his  '^Gibbon"  or 
his  ^'Kennett"  lately,  he  would  have  remembered  that  a  "sim- 
ple garland"  was  the  tangible  prize  in  the  races  of  the  Roman 
Stadium,  though  money  was  very  often  given  to  the  successful 
competitor  by  other  persons.  The  money  was  not  a  stake,  put 
up  by  the  competitors  themselves,  but  by  admirers  of  those 
games,  just  as  a  pecuniary  prize  is  now-a-days  offered  for  the 
best  literary  work  on  some  specified  subject.  T/ie  prize,  how- 
ever, was  a  "crown  of  leaves,"  and  above  and  beyond  that  the 
supposed  '^imperishable  rerioioii''''  of  the  victor  in  the  national 
games.  The  money  was  an  incidental  thing,  a  voluntary  offer- 
ing from  the  by-standers  or  officers  of  the  games,  sometimes 
given  and  sometimes  not  given.  Ausonius,  as  translated  by 
Addison,  would  have  informed  "Erskine"  to  this  effect,  as  far 
as  the  prize  of  the  Grecian  games  was  concerned. 

"  Greece,  in  four  games  thy  martial  youth  were  trained; 
For  lieroes,  two,  and  two  for  gods  ordained: 
Jove  bare  the  olivt  round  bis  victor  wave, 
Phoebus  to  his  an  apple  gw  land  gave; 
Tlie  pine,  Palaenon;  nor,  with  less  renown 
Archemoriis  conferred  the parsleij  crown." 

The  leafy  chaplet,  as  representing  the  crown  of  undying 
honor,  with  which  the  victor  was  to  be  rewarded,  for  his  own' 
sake  and  that  of  his  family  for  some  generations,  was  the  prize 
in  those  ancient  contests.  The  money  that  might  be  given  was 
not  an  object  in  the  minds  of  more  noble  aspirants.  If  it  had 
been  in  any  case  known  to  be  the  absorbing  object  of  the  suc- 
cessful contestant,  when  we  reflect  on  the  high  ideasthe  ancients 
had  of  the  glories  of  these  games,  it  is  likely  that  the  judges 
would  have  refused  to  have  crowned  such  an  one,  as  unworthy, 


ill  consequence  of  the  low  motive  that  impelled  him.  That  bet- 
ting took  place  among  the  outsiders,  of  course,  is  probable,  as 
'^Erskine"  tells  us.  Indeed,  I  can  inform  ''Erskine"  of  what 
he  evidently  does  not  know,  which  is,  that  there  were  games  of 
chance  ncrtainlij  about  the  Chiislian  era,  and  that  money  was 
put  up,  as  now,  by  the  gamesters.  He  did  not  know  this,  else  he 
would  have  given  it  as  an  authoritative  fact,  instead  of  relying 
on  unfounded  assertions  in  reference  to  the  national  games.  If 
^'Erskine"  was  really  versed  in  the  literature  of  this  subject  as 
well  as  he  seems  to  be  in  the  Arcana  of  those  unhappy  men,  the 
gamesters  of  the  present  day,  he  would  surely  have  given  his 
readers  the  benefit  of  the  significant  line  of  Perseus,  as  translated 
by  Dryden, 

"  To  shun  Amez-Ace  that  swept  my  stakes  away." 

I  have  vindicated  the  National  Games  of  Antiquity,  Mr.  Edi- 
tor, from  the  misconceptions  of  the  author  of  these  letters  to  me, 
and,  while  I  inform  him  of  the  actual  gaming  of  a  remote  pe- 
riod, must  lake  occasion  to  express  my  moral  disapprobation  of 
these  practices — a  disapprobation  he  has  not  avowed  in  reference 
to  the  alleged  gambling  of  the  public  games  in  Italy  and  Greece. 
I  condemn  such  things  wherever  foiuid',  whatever  called,  do  not 
consider  them  ''the  legitimate  offspring  of  human  passions,"  as 
he  does,  bnt  the  most  veritable  bastards  of  fallen  himianity,  and, 
like  other  illegitimates,  laboring  under  the  ban  of  the  virtuous 
and  pure  in  every  land  and  in  every  age.  Acknowledging,  as 
every  one  ac(]uainted  with  history  nnist  do,  that  gaming  for 
money  had  a  right  ancient  origin,  I  must  insist  on  the  idea  that 
the  anti(]uity  of  the  vice  is  no  vindication  of  it,  more  than  it  is  of 
any  other  immorality,  and  will  only  remind  this  writer  that  it 
was  when  the  children  of  Israel,  in  the  de.sert,  "sat  down  to 
eat  and  drink,  (at  their  idolatrous  feast,)  and  rose  up  to  play," 
(prohably  game,)  that  the  Most  High  said  to  Moses,  "this  is  a 
stiff-necked  people,  let  me  alone,  that  my  wrath  may  wax  hot 
against  them,  and  that  T  may  consume  them." 

"Erskine,"  I  think,  may  be  satisfactorily  dispo.sed  of,  by  a 
few  calm  observations  on  his  other  points,  lie  insists  on  it,  that 
Matthias  and  Barsabas  gambled  for  the  vacant  Apostleship,ancr, 
in  the  same  paragraph,  speaks  of  gambling  as  "a  vice  of  no  or- 
dinary magnitude."  Were  these  disciples  of  .Tosus  guilty  of  an 
immorality  of  "  no  ordinary  masnitude."  Will  "Erskine"  tell 
his  Christian  readers  this?  Solomon  tells  us  that  "the  lot  is 
cast  into  the  lap,  but  the  whole  disposing  thereof  i.s  of  the 
Lord."  Is  the  Loid,  then,  accessory  to  "a  vice  of  no  ordinary 
magnitude?  If  not,  then,  the  lot  and  gambling  are  not  the 
same  thing.  Apart  from  this  consideration,  I  a.ssert  that  they 
did  not  thus  gamble,  and  it  seems  to  be  the  result  of  unreflec- 


30 

tion  to  make  np  one's  mind  to  sa}'  that  they  did.  How  conld 
there  be  teaming  where  neither  lost  anything  that  he  had  pre- 
viously possessed?  Conld  men  ever  make  anything  ont  of  each 
other,  by  this  kind  of  gambling?  This  writer  sa3^s  the  parties, 
each,  risked  his  claim,  but  does  he  not  see  that  the  claim  is 
practically  a  thing  of  nanght,  until  after  the  decision  of  the  lot? 
Nobody  bad  anything  to  lose,  and  the  evil  of  gambhng  lies  in 
the  fact,  that  one  loses  perhaps  his  all,  without  anything  what- 
ever in  the  shape  of  an  equivalent.  What  ''Erskine"  calls  a 
*' claim,"  is  in  reality  not  a  claim,  because  there  is  neither  pos- 
session or  ownership  in  the  case.  The  ownership,  or  real  claim, 
can  only  be  established  by  the  lot.  He  says,  the  chance  of  get- 
ting something  is  risked,  and  that  judges  have  decided  that  "a 
chance"  is  a  reality.  But  he  must  discriminate  between  this  last 
kind  of  "chance"  and  the  gaming  "chance."  "  Erskine" 
knows  that  the  lawmakers  and  jndges  decide  in  the  matter  of 
^awino- that  this  "chance"  is  practically  nothing.  This  is  the 
essential  foundation  of  the  law.  The  doctrine  of  the  law  is, 
that  except  in  matters  of  ciiarity,  or  "gifts  in  fee  simple,"  pro- 
perty shall  not  pass  from  one  man's  hand  to  another's  without 
some  return,  for  the  reason  that  the  principle  is  intrinsically 
vicious.  If  I  exchange  merchandise  for  money,  with  my  neigh- 
bor, there  is  a  chance  that  each  may  make  by  the  operation,  or 
if  money  is  paid  for  doubtful  paper,  the  courts  will  determine 
that  "the  chance"  is  a  reality,  because  the  paper  mmj  bring 
something.  But  if  a  gambler  puts  another  man's  money  into 
his  pocket,  leaving  hnn  jieiiniless,  what  chance  is  there  that 
the  losing  man  will  make  anything  by  the  transaction  ?  In 
trade  botli  parties  may  be  benefitted.  In  gaming  only  one  can 
be.  This  is  the  philosophy  of  the  vice  of  gambling,  the  theory 
of  the  laws  against  gambling,  and  however  "Erskine"  may 
deceive  his  own  mind,  I  think,  if  he,  deeming  it  as  he  does  a 
vice  of  no  ordinary  dimensions,  will  analyze  his  thoughts,  he 
will  find,  that  so  far  from  tliis  risked  chance  mitigating  the 
offence,  the  whole  guilt  of  the  crime,  does,  in  a  circle  of  fire, 
flash  and  play  around  this  very  point,  this  chance,  which  is  not 
a  chance. 

*  "Erskine"  complains  that  I  misunderstand  him  in  his  allu- 
sions to  Mr.  Fox,  Mr.  Sheridan  and  others.  How  is  this,  sir? 
He  said  plainly  enough  that  the  gaming  of  these  men  showed 
it  to  be  popular  in  the  best  circles,  and  therefore  it  would  be 
almost,  if  not  wholly,  impossible  seriously  to  diminish  it.  I 
said,  in  reply,  that  the  fact  of  the  commission  of  this  vice  by 
these  persons  no  more  proved  it  to  be  popular  in  high  circles 
than  the  practice  of  other  vices  by  these  men  proved  them  to  be 
popular  and  difficult  to  be  overcome.  What  other  treatment 
could  an  opponent  give  to  so  transparent  a  fallacy?    And  how 


31 

have  I  misconstrued  the  writer?  It  would  require  a  more  plausi- 
ble pen  than  his  to  show  any  misconstruction  whatever;  and  he 
must  support  the  \veight  which  the  refutation  of  his  argument 
throws  on  him  as  well  as  he  can. 

In  my  letter  to  you,  sir,  I  had  spoken  of  the  power  of  public 
opinion,  as  against  gaming,  and  said  that  it  had  been  signally 
shown,  by  the  almost  entire  extinction  of  female  gambling.  I 
referred  to  the  scadiing  diatribes  of  Addison  as  helping  to  give 
birth  and  body  to  this  effective  public  sentiment.  But  "Ers- 
kine,"  with  a  sharpness  which  your  readers  will  be  at  a  loss  to 
appreciate,  sees  something  "  literally  astounding"  in  this.  He 
points  us  to  Germany,  and  to  Continental  Europe  generally,  to 
show  that  f(3males  still  game  fearfully,  and  also  to  a  lady's  rou- 
lette-room at  Saratoga  Springs,  this  latier  accompanied  by  the 
very  addin'onal  circumstance  of  being  "kept  by  a  man  whose 
name  was  Grindle!"  Does  that  refute  my  statement?  Wlien  I 
spoke  of  Addison,  and  of  English  opinion,  as  moulded  by  his 
writings,  did  any  reader  of  the  W/dsr^  except  "  Erskine,"  ima- 
gine that  I  was  extending  this  inlluence  to  Germany,  where  a 
different  language  is  used  and  a  dillerent  type  of  civilization  ob- 
tains? I  think  not.  l)oul)tless  1  was  understood  to  mean 
Anglo-Saxon  Christendom,  including  America.  I  did  mean  it, 
and  the  fact  was  as  1  have  stated  it  to  be.  Gammg  is  not  now  a 
vice  among  the  ladies  of  England  as  it  was  in  former  days;  nor 
is  It  a  vice  of  the  ladies  of  the  Confederate  States.  And  not- 
withstanding this  roulette-room  for  females  at  Saratoga,  there  is 
no  evidence  that  gaming  is  a  general  thing,  even  among  North- 
ern women,  far  as  we  hold  Nortliern  society  to  be  from  repre- 
senting Anglo-American  civilization.  "  Erskine  "  tells  the 
readers  of  the  W/ii;^,  thai  in  Baden-Baden  females  gamble,  and, 
if  I  may  use  his  figure,  ''fight  the  tiger  like  wild-cats."  But 
did  he  not  see  the  deep  into  which  he  was  plunging  when  he 
gave  this  information?  It  will  be  quite  pleasant  to  all  to  remem- 
ber that  this  Baden-Baden,  wliere  so  odioris  a  social  evil  exists, 
is  in  Germany,  where  gaming-houses  are  established  by  law,  the 
very  inslitution  ''Erskine"  wishes  to  see  in  this  State  of  Vir- 
ginia. [)oes  he  not  think  that  Richmond,  where  gambling- 
houses  are /or^jV/r/r/i  by  law,  will  compare  very  favorably  with 
Baden-Baden,  where  they  are  estahlishcd  by  law?  Do  revolting 
and  heart-sickening  scenes  like  those  described  by  "Kirwan" 
and  Madam  Le  Vert,  as  occurring  among  femalesin  the  lawful 
gaming-houses  in  Baden,  ever  transpire  in  Richmond,  where 
such  ])laces  are  not  loleraled  by  statute?  Of  course  such  an  as- 
sertion will  not  be  made.  Leaving  "Erskine,"  therefore,  to 
brood  over  the  mishap  resulting  from  his  citation,  and  wishing 
him  greater  foresight  in  fiiiure,  1  pass  to  another  objection. 

I  endeavored,  in  my  letter  of  January  9th,  to  discredit  the 


33 

proposed  law  advocated  by  "Erskine,"  by  reminding  yonr 
readers  that  Germany  and  France  were  infidel  nations.  This, 
of  course,  was  legitimate  and  natural,  but  the  author  of  these 
unique  letters  to  me  denies  most  stoutly  that  these  nations,  who 
take  the  initiative  in  passing  a  law  of  the  kind  in  question,  are 
infidel  in  their  character.  I  did  not  suppose  this  would  be  con- 
troverted by  any  one,  and  remark  now,  that  if  the  French  nation, 
which  takes  into  its  bosom  such  theological  vipers  as  Voltaire, 
Rousseau,  D'Alembert  and  Cousin,  delighting  to  honor  them, 
and  then  periodically  drenching  itself  with  human  blood,  pro- 
claiming "death  is  an  eternal  sleep!"  if  such  a  people  are  not 
practically  as  well  as  theoretically  infidel,  it  will  be  difficult  to 
deteruune  infidelity.  And  if  Germany,  furnishing  the  literary 
works,  whence  French  infidels,  Westminster  Reviewers  and 
Boston  free-thinkers  draw  their  blasphemous  stores,  is  not  as  in- 
fidel a  nation  as  any  people  within  the  limits  of  professed  Chris- 
tendom ever  could  be,  it  will  appear  still  more  difficult  to  decide 
what  infidelity  is.  1  must  not,  however,  discuss  this  matter 
further,  but  willingly  leave  it  to  your  readers.  As  for  this  wri- 
ter's taunt,  that  these  infidel  people  will  compel  tlie  payment  of 
a  gambling  debt,  Vv'hile  Christian  nations  will  not,  1  have  only 
to  say  that  if  France  and  Germany  choose  to  take  their  thieving 
vampires,  the  gamesters,  under  especial  State  protection,  by  se- 
curing their  ill-gotten  gains  to  them,  they  are  not  injuring  any 
one  but  themselves,  and  if  "Erskine"  really  wishes  to  see  this 
evil  diminished,  he  ought  to  be  pleased  to  have  it  encompassed 
by  as  many  barriers  and  perils  as  possible.  Having  reached  the 
end  of  the  gentleman's  first  letter,  I  must  close,  promising  to- 
morrow to  look  at  the  second,  as  decidedly  the  most  striking  of 
the  two. 

W.  M. 
Buchanan,  Botetourt  Co.,  Va. 


To  the  Editor  of  the  Whig: 

The  second  letter  of  ''Erskine"  opens  with  the  singular, 
though  not  seriously  meant,  intimation,  that  I  am  favorable  to 
the  gamblers,  but  as  he  retracts  this  at  once,  I  will  look  immedi- 
ately at  his  declaration  that  the  gamblers  were  favorable  to  my 
plan,  and  against  his.  And  first  let  me  say  that  if  ''Erskine" 
heard  them  express  themselves  as  thus  friendly  to  my  proposal,  of 
course  I  am  bound  to  believe  him,  hut  if  he  did  not,  himself, 
hear  their  words,  I  am  afraid  he  is  speaking  from  some  such  in- 
formation as  he  had;  when  he  stated,  positively,  that  "  before  the 


S3 

flood  Chance  was  a  god  at  whose  feet  millions  worshipped,"  His 
friends  have  soothed  him  by  telling  him  this,  and  by  believing 
them,  he  has  exhibited  a  ciediiHty,  only  equalled  by  his  vacancy 
of  logic.  His  iriends  could  not  have  heard  the  gamblers  express 
themselves  so  repeatedly  in  my  favor,  because  "Erskiiie's"  asso- 
ciates cannot  be  the  associates  of  gamesters,  to  hear  them  speak 
so  much  on  one  subject,  "  Erskine"  himself  certainly  would 
not  go  among  them  to  listen  to  their  speeches.  His  unpopu- 
larity among  them,  of  which  he  tells  us,  would  certainly  prevent 
their  unburdening  themselves  in  his  presence,  and  thus  furnish- 
ing him  with  an  argument  against  them.  If  they  did  express 
themselves  as  against  legal  gammg  houses,  is  it  impossible, 
eitlier  in  Richmond  or  New  (Orleans,  that  such  men,  in  order  to 
gain  their  object,  should  have  made  opposition  to  the  plan?  Are 
they  incapable  of  such  a  ruse?  No  one  can  think  that  they  are. 
Nothing  is  more  easy  than  such  a  supposition.  If  they  were  op- 
posed to  such  a  law  in  New  Orleans,  what  is  more  natural,  when 
they  didkeep  their  110  establishments  without  paying  any  tax? 
On  these  grounds  I  suspect  that  the  real  preference  of  the  gam- 
blers for  my  plan  over  his  is  somewhat  of  the  nature  of  an  hypo- 
thesis, which  would  be  good,  if  true,  but  not  bemg  a  sound  one, 
is  nothing  Avorih.  How,  indeed,  Mr.  Editor,  can  these  un- 
happy men  be  favorable  to  the  law,  which  1  would  have  passed 
in  regard  to  them?  ]t  would  not  allow  any  public  gaming  house 
for  them  to  frequent,  and  if  they  gamed  in  such  establishments 
as  now  exist,  they  would  be  sent  to  the  Penitentiary.  Pass  a 
law  making  gambling,  anywhere,  a  felony,  and  instead  of  these 
men  paying,  as  they  now  do,  a  line,  some  years'  incarceration 
would  be  the  penalty.  Could  anything  be  more  obvious,  than 
the  propnsitiim,  that  the  severer  the  punishment,  the  greater  the 
probability  that  men  will  be  deterred  from  the  commission  of  the 
unlawful  act?  '^  Erskitie's"  law  would  o;;e«  houses,  where  all 
gamblers  can  go,  and  game  freely.  The  law  I  reconminnd  would 
shut  up  all  the  gambling  dens  in  the  State,  on  pain  of  the  State 
prison,  for  a  tern)  of  years,  if  kept  in  any  manner.  What  is  there 
in  this  prospect  so  very  pleasing  to  gamesters?  What  can  gam- 
blers want  with  a  law  which,  instead  of  inflicting  a  pecuniary 
mulct,  as  now,  would  deprive  them  of  personal  liberty  for  a  pro- 
tracted period?  As  for  the  lower  class  of  these  pestilential  knaves 
whose  trade  ''Erskine"  would  legalize,  does  he  really  believe,  is 
he  so  little  acquainted  with  this  world,  and  the  history  of  courts 
and  licenses  &-c.,  as  to  believe  that  these  men  could  not  unite 
(say  a  nmnber  of  them)  and  pay  the  tax,  requisite  to  keeping 
one  of  his  lawful  gaming  places,  or  to  believe  that  the  worst  men 
in  the  community  cannot  get  son)ebody  to  go  their  security?  A 
number  of  njen,  forming  a  company,  carry  on  the  legalized  gam- 
bling houses  in  Baden-Baden,  why  could  not  a  company  oX 
5 


84 

gamesters,  even  of  the  worst  sort,  open  and  pay  the  tax  on  a 
lawful  gaming  plaice  in  Uichinnnd  ?  Why  could  not  these  vast 
nnnihers  of  gamesters  found  in  the  land,  if  their  foul  work  is 
made  lawful,  form  companies,  pay  the  tax,  and  fill  the  purlieus 
of  Richmond  with  their  vile  houses,  while  the  wealthier  robhers 
have  more  elegant  ''hells"  on  JViain  Street,  and  Broad?  Why 
docs  not  ''Erskine"  tremble  at  such  a  thought,  and  grow  pale 
at  such  a  prospect,  instead  of  devoting  himself  as  he  now  does, 
to  the  promotion  of  so  terrific  an  object?  As  to  tlie  belief  of  this 
writer,  if  gaming  is  licensed,  the  practice  will  become  conscien- 
tious, and  we  shall  see  a  new  generation  of  honest  gamblers  who 
would  not  cheat  lor  the  world,  the  idea  simply  excites  wonder. 
Does  "Erskine"  really  know  what  kind  of  a  world  he  is  in? 
Has  he  read  the  account  of  the  "  German  Hells"  in  the  Whig 
of  January  15th?  As  soon  as  one  reads  this  argument  for  law- 
ful gambhng  houses,  and  thinks  of  "Erskine"  embarking  in 
his  enterprise,  with  this  idea,  he  is  reminded  at  once  of  the  band 
in  Jerusalem  who  joined  the  ill-fated  Absalom,  and  went  forth 
"  in  their  simplicity,  and  k7ieiv  not  anything.'''' 

But,  Mr.  Editor,  we  have  been  made  acquainted  with  some 
fascinating  characters,  in  the  form  of  gamblers,  by  the  author  of 
tliese  letters  to  me;  men  of  rare  genius,  literary  culture,  fine 
address,  and  colloquial  powers,  tliat  would  enable  them  to  adorn 
any  society,  however  refined.  They  are  liberal  men,  too,  give 
to  the  poor,  to  the  war,  arid  to  churches.  They  are  tender- 
hearted men  also,  fond  of  drying  up  other  people's  tears,  and  walk 
lovingly  among  the  woes  and  sorrows  of  this  earthly  vale.  They 
are  persons  of  fine  moral  infltience,  men  of  salutary  tendencies 
of  various  kinds.  Tiiese  are  the  obstacles  which  '' Erskine" 
tells  me  stand  in  the  path  of  all  who  would  mak'e  successful  war 
against  this  dark  frateioity,  the  gamesters.  Be  seems  to  have 
a  genuine  admiration  for  these  wouderftd  individuals,  who  have 
so  many  alluring  qualities.  He  should  remember  that,  by  all 
these  attractifuis  and  arts,  these  men  simply  tnako  their  victims 
the  more  numerous  and  unsuspecting.  These  shining  accom- 
plishments are  a  part  of  the  instruments  these  persons  use  in  car- 
rying on  their  work  f>f  ruin.  Has  "Erskine"  forgotten  the 
pithy  saying  of  l^ord  Bacon,  concerning  the  gamester,  that  "the 
greater  master  he  is  in  his  art,  the  worse  man  he  is  "?  Has  he 
forgotten  tlie  gamester  Mr.  Law  described,  the  slippery  man, 
who  ran  away  with  a  lady's  daughter,  ''a  man  of  great  beauty, 
who  in  dressmg  and  dancing  has  no  superior"?  Has  he  for- 
gotten tbe  elegant  "Charles  Price,"  the  forger,  who  played  the 
gentleman  so  well,  and  preyed  on  his  fellow  men  through  a  long 
hfe,  and  at  last  to  escape  his  mental  agony  and  shame,  hung 
himself  in  Tothill  prison?  Did  Price's  superior  manners  redeem 
him  from  the  execration  of  his  countrymen?     If  "Erskine"  is 


35 

a  lawyer,  does  he  not  know  that  the  law,  which  is  the  ''  perfec- 
tion of  reason,"  gives  a  man  no  credit  fi>r  his  accomplishments, 
if  he  be  a  A'iolator  of  the  law?  Has  he  never  read  of  that  capi- 
tal fellow,  Isaac  Dnmas  of  Oxfordshire?  Hesniig  his  song  well, 
told  a  good  story,  was  apt  at  a  sentnnent,  drank  freely,  so  that  at 
the  cinbs  of  the  day— who  hut  he  I  The  ladies,  of  conrse,  occu- 
pied his  atter)tion,  and  he  became  so  great  a  favoriie,  that  ha 
took  to  tJie  road  to  consolidate  his  ascendancy — for  he  was  ^e«e- 
rous.  He  woidd  have  done  very  well  to  rank  among  the  wor- 
thies mentioned  by  "Krskine,"  but  the  men  of  Oxford  hung 
him  up  by  his  neck,  agreeable  as  he  was.  I  can  commend 
"Dumas'  "  history  to  *' J?irskine\s"  meditations.  He  has  read 
the  great  poet,  let  him  peruse  Gloster's  soliloquy  : 

'•Why  I  ran  smile,  and  miirdor,  while  I  smile; 

And  cry  content,  to  that  wiiirh  ijrieves  my  heart; 

And  wet  my  cheeks  with  artificial  tears, 

And  frame  my  face  to  all  occasions. 

I'll  drown  more  sailors  than  the  nicrmaid  shall; 

I'll  slay  more  gazers  than  the  hasilisk; 

I'll  play  the  orator  as  well  as  Nestor, 

Deceive  more  slily  than  Ulysses  could, 

And,  like  a  Simon,  take  another  Troy. 

1  can  add  colors  to  the  Chameleon; 

Change  shapes  willi  Proteous,  f  ^r  advantage, 

And  set  the  Miird'rous  Machiavel  to  school, 

Can  I  do  this,  and  cannot  get  a  crown  ?" 

Such  ethereal,  polished  enemies  of  their  race,  sir,  have  not  un- 
freqnently  been  seen  in  this  world  of  oin-s.  These  beautiful 
leopards,  with  their  shining  spots  and  silken  coat,  have  often 
roamed  the  earth  without  a  cage,  and  there  ever  have  been  some 
men.  who  thought  they  were  too  pretty  and  graceful  in  their  mo- 
tions to  be  put  within  bars,  or  anywise  hindered  in  their  fearful 
roamings.  They  Avere  so  pleasant — with  all  the  blood  around 
each  month  and  dripping  from  their  claws.  ''Erskine"  ought 
to  indulge  in  no  laudatory  languageof  these  mortal  f()es  of  wives 
and  cradled  babes,  and  aged,  palsied  mothers,  whose  husbands, 
fathers  and  sons  are  in  the  jaws  of  these  monsters,  crunched  to 
death.  The  shining  qualities  of  such  beings,  used  as  they  aro 
to  aid  their  ruinous  emprise,  become  glistening  vice^j  and  men 
should  hate  their  very  (orms  and  shadows  with  a  mortal  hatred. 
'^Erskine"  quotes  from  the  Bible  now  and  then,  as  he  goes 
upon  his  way,  in  his  letters.  Does  he  find  anything  in  the  ser- 
mons or  conversations  of  the  Saviour  of  the  world  like  an  eulogy 
of  the  vicious,  even  f)r  the  sake  of  argument?  Have  gentle- 
manly manners  in  gamesters,  here  and  there,  anything  worthy 
of  a  moment's  thought,  when  men  are  discussing  the  methods 
of  checking  the  depredations  of  these  sleek  savages — <'  these 
wolves  in  sheep's  clothini^  ;•■'  1  know  "Eiskiiio"  does  not  con- 
sider hiinseli'  the  apologist  for  gamblers;  but,  when  he  descauta 


8® 

on  the  siiperiorvirtnes  of  members  of  this  heaven-cursed  company, 
does  not  every  gamester  feel  that  he  may  be  virtuous  and  a  gamester 
still?  Does  not  every  youth,  who  reads  his  hicubrations,  take  into 
his  mind  the  tliought  ho  may  game  to  his  heart's  content,  and  yet 
be  a  ^Mhorough  gentleman,"  <' stand  high  in  private  and  public 
confidence,"  and  be  in  benevolence  a  philanthropist,  and  in  his 
munificence  a  prince?  Who  does  not  see  that  the  effe-^t  of  this 
is  and  must  be  evil,  and  only  evil?  How  closely  does  this  re- 
semble the  course  described  in  .Scripture  of  the  man  who  "  scat- 
ters firebrands,  arrows  and  death,"  and  of  him  ''  who  leadeth  his 
neighbor  astray,  and  saith,  am  not  I  in  sport?"  When  "  Ers- 
kine"  tells  gamblers  that  members  of  their  foul  craft  have  been 
men  of  almost  every  virtue  under  heaven,  does  this  not  satisfy 
such  persons  that  a  gambler  is  not  necessarily  an  inmioral  man; 
that  he  is  not  immoral  simply  because  he  is  a  gamester?  When 
this  writer  tells  these  men  that  Apostles  gambled,  can  he  expect 
them  to  desire  superior  virtue  to  the  Apostles;  or  that  the  young 
men,  whose  fate  in  this  thing,  at  this  moment,  is,  perhaps,  ba- 
lanced on  a  needle's  point,  will  not  be  content  to  game  deeply, 
if  they  think  they  shall  be  no  worse  than  Apostles?  If  "  Ers- 
kine"  is,  indeed,  a  lover  of  tfie  public  virtue  and  happiness,  he 
ought  surely  to  weigh  well  his  words,  lest  he  should  bring  into 
being  results  at  which  his  very  heart  would  turn  sick.  He  speaks 
of  his  sons;  he  would  be  wise,  perhaps,  to  remember  that,  in 
teaching  such  a  doctrine,  in  regard  to  inspired  Apostles,  he  may 
be  sowing  in  the  minds  of  those  sons  seeds  which  shr.ll  spring 
up  and  grow  into  a  harvest  of  woe  for  them  and  him. 

What  is  the  meaning,  Mr.  Editor,  of*  all  this  parade  about  the 
liberaHty  of  gamblers;  the  gentleman  tells  me,  that  these  men 
give  thousands  oftlollars  to  individuals  and  to  churches.  Would 
he  receive  from  any  man,  f()r  a  gift  at  Christmas,  money  made 
out  of  "  a  vice  of  no  ordinary  magnitude  "?  If  "  Erskine"  has 
a  passion  for  building  churches,  would  he  receive  assistance, 
from  such  men,  to  pay  for  their  erection?  I  think,  sir,  it  would 
evince,  in  any  one,  a  very  great  ignorance  of  the  laws  of  Provi- 
dence, to  expect  a  heavenly  blessing,  on  a  church  edifice,  built 
with  ill-gotten  gains,  its  every  stone  cemented  with  the  tears  and 
blood  of  the  widow  and  the  f&dierless.  I  will  do  <«  Erskine" 
the  credit  to  suppose,  that,  on  reflection,  he  would  not  receive 
this  cankered  gold,  even  from  the  lilly  hand  of  the  finest  of  these 
murderers.  The  liberality  of  gamblers  !  In  one  very  obvious 
sense,  sir,  this  seenung  virtue  is  the  fruit  of  the  life-long  vice  of  the 
individual  whoshows  it.  <' The  substance  of  the  diligent,  (says 
Solomon)  is  precious,"  that  is,  the  working  man,  knows  the 
value  of  money  because  he  has  toiled  hard  to  procure  it.  Such 
a  man  deals  wisely  with  his  means,  either  giving  or  retaining 
them  prudently,     Cut  the  gamester  secures  his  gold  without  toil, 


fills  hi!3  coffers,  out  of  what  be  calls  ^^play,"  and  therefore  will 
be  more  likely  to  part  with  money  easily,  whether  wisely  or  un- 
wisely. His  apparent  exrellence  is  the  off>pring  of  a  real  vice. 
I  mean  in  very  considerable  measure.  If  there  is  any  true 
generosity,  in  the  heart  of  such  a  man,  it  is  a  puzzling  problem 
to  reconcile  it  with  the  rest  of  his  character.  Half  tlie  time,  if 
not  irmro,  liberality  in  such  men  is  the  mere  effect  of  a  desire  to 
inipress  others  with  the  idea,  that  the  donors  are  good,  kind  fel- 
lows., who  do  not  care  for  money  and  woidd  not  defraud  a  per- 
son, no,  not  on  any  acconnt.  Indeed,  they  would  help  a  poor 
man,  instead  of  injuringhim.  The  deed  of  charity  is  witb  them, 
in  a  large  number  of  cases,  a  mere  intended  offset  to  the  general 
cruelty  of  their  ingenuous  lives.  If  this  man  '•  Prindle"  in  Sa- 
vannah, mentioned  by  ^'Erskine"  would  have  ''dried  every 
tear"  "in  this  vale  of  tears"  if  he  could,  why  did  he  go  on  in 
a  life  which  caused  so  many  tears  to  be  streamitig  down  the 
scalded  cheeks  of  misery  /  Why  did  he  pass  his  whole  career 
in  opening  the  fountains  of  mothers'  and  children's  sorrow,  and 
unlocking  the  ciiamhers  of  their  groans  ?  But  I  must  not  dwell, 
Mr.  Editor,  on  this  pernicious  ilea  any  longer. 

"Erskine"  tell  us,  that  siK.h  men  stand  in  the  path  of  my 
argument;  that  a  gambler  in  Richmond,  one  in  Savannah,  and, 
one  who  graduated  some  years  ago  at  a  university,  very  wonder- 
ful men,  in  his  view,  these  occasionally  found  men,  these  scat- 
tered wrecks  of  human  nature,  stand  in  the  highway  of  ref(">rm. 
Indeed,  sir!  If  Richmond  policemen  can  force  their  way  into 
the  p'llluted  chambers  of  the  gamester,  and  put  these  grand  gen- 
tlemen to  flielit,  through  back-doors  and  small  windows,  will  it 
be  so  impossible  a  thing  to  repress  this  evil,  and  keep  it  low,  as 
you  do  any  other  vice?  Detectives  in  your  city  have  brought 
the  instruments  of  the  black  art  of  these  rriminals,  into  the  courts, 
and  showed  them  befiire  all  men.  They  have  in  some  cases 
brought  their  persons,  and  upright,  brave  judges,  either  have 
disposed  of  their  cases,  or  shortly  will  do  so,  punishing  them  as 
they  most  richly  deserve.  There  is  nothing  dilhcult  in  the  sup- 
position, that  more  stringent  enactments  might  be  passed  against 
them,  and  determined  officers  be  f^mnd  to  arrest  them,  and  reso- 
lute juries  to  convict  them,  and  men  on  the  bench,  the  purity  of 
whose  ermine  would  not  be  sullied,  bv  attempts  to  let  such  of- 
fenders escape  through  the  meshes  of  the  law.  The  ncble  and 
true  men  of  Virgini.i,  nine-tenths  of  whom  condemn  this  prac- 
tice, can  rise  in  their  might,  and  demand  the  passage  of  such 
laws  as  shall  drive  these  men  out  of  the  land,  to  Germany  or 
to  France,  wheie  they  can  make  their  blood  red  bread,  with 
none,  for  a  moment,  to  hinder  or  make  them  afraid.  Let  the 
public  imagination  of  Virauiia  be  {Mit  in  full  possession  of  all  the 
hateful  features  and  sad  terrors  of  llus  work  of  darkness;  let  the 


ss 

people  become  keenly  and  thoroughly  aroused  to  the  enormities 
of  this  thing;  let  ministers,  and  editors,  and  orators  at  the  bar 
turn  it,  on  every  side,  that  men  may  see  its  hideous,  devilish 
shape,  and  disgusting  proportions;  pass  laws  making  it  a  felony 
and  then  we  shall  see  who  will  be  allowed  to  stand  in  the  path 
of  justice  and  of  power.  If  A,,  under  '' Erskine's  "  plan  of 
legal  gaming  houses,  would  be  deterred  from  the  crime  by  fear 
of  a  felon's  cell,  why  should  not  A.  and  B.  and  C,  and  all  men 
be  restrained  from  the  commission  of  the  offence  by  dread  of  the 
same  penalty,  if  there  were  vn  gaming  houses  protected  by  law? 
High  position  or  personal  gifts  afford  no  reliable  security  to  the 
violators  of  their  nation's  laws,  and  they  know  it.  They  would 
respect  the  majesty  of  the  law,  or  they  would  be  made  to  fall  be- 
fore it.  The  accomplished  and  popular  William  Dodd,  perishing 
on  a  scaffold,  th(nigli  the  first  men  in  England  tried  to  save  him, 
and  Lord  Ferrars,  going  from  his  castle. to  a  gibbet,  and  others  like 
them,  may  remind  ''Erskine"  that  men  "  surrounded  by  a  host 
of  friends"  cannot  always,  with  impunity,  trample  on  their 
country's  will.  I  believe,  Mr,  Editor,  no  better  law,  than  such 
an  otie  as  I  have  now  spoken  of  could  be  devised.  It  may  be 
sharp,  but  many  diseases  require  the  knife,  and  this  is  one  of 
them.  I  believe  with  equal  conviction  that  "Erskine"  pro- 
posal is  the  most  unwise  that  could  possibly  be  made.  I  incline 
to  think  it  meets  the  reprobation  of  nearly  every  lover  of  virtue 
and  public  happiness,  and  trust  the  Legislature,  at  a  time  when 
so  much  depends  on  their  wisdom  and  firmness,  will  display  an 
elevation  of  mind  and  heart,  worthy  of  its  past  days,  and  show 
this  scheme  no  favor,  none^whatever.  Let  it,  in  a  mad  hour,  be 
adopted,  and  not  only  will  gambling  be  mightily  increased,  but 
that  being  the  parent  of  many  other  crimes,  every  sluice  of  ini- 
quity will  fly  open,  and  every  vice  rush  unfettered  and  uncon- 
trolled through  the  land. 

'<  Erskine  "  says  in  his  last  letter,  that  he  will  not  answer  one 
argument  of  mine,  as  he  chooses  to  call  it,  viz  :  an  alleged  ob- 
jection to  his  scheme,  to  the  effect,  that  if  gaming  houses  are 
licensed,  heavily  taxed,  and,  therefore,  iew  in  number,  it  would 
be  a  restriction  on  men's  liberty,  as  on  account  of  the  distance 
they  would  have  to  go,  to  reach  a  lawful  gaming  house,  they 
would  he  put  to  much  inconvenience.  He  represents  me  as  bring- 
ing this  forward  as  an  argument  ag.iinst  his  plan.  I  offered  no 
such  objection.  If ''Erskine"  read,  and  thought  carefully  on 
what  I  said,  he  must  have  seen  that  I  only  mentioned  that  such 
would  be  the  case,  in  order  to  show  one  of  his  arguments  to  be 
self  contradictory.  He  had  said  that  ^^  amj  law  which  strikes  at 
the  fullest  and  freest  fruition  of  a  pet  passion  of  the  million  is 
bound  to  arouse  the  combative  propensities  of  the  masses,  and 
they  will  eternally  thwart  and  foil  its  execution,"    This  was  his 


assertion,  and  then  he  proposes  a  law,  which  he  says  will  check. 
tliis  vice  most  sensibly;  yes,  "achieve  a  Solferino  victory  over 
gaming."  When  I  was  looking  at  this  part  of  his  article,  I  saw 
of  course  the  glaring  inconsistency  of  the  two  things  and  simply 
pointed  it  out.  I  asked  him,  hnw  this  law  of  his,  which  he  says 
would  cause  the  gaming  houses  to  be  few,  and  theref(>re  remote 
from  vast  numbers,  how  a  law  so  inconvenient,  and  hampering 
to  the  "  pet  passion  of  the  million  "  could  be  carried  out,  seeing 
he  had  said  the  masses  would  "eternally  thwart  and  foil  "  such 
a  law?  He  writes  as  if  I  were  objeciing  to  this  restraint  on 
men's  liberty,  whereas  my  article  showed  him,  that  1  wanted  the 
penalty  of  a  felony  to  hang  over  the  head  of  every  njan  who 
gambles.  J  would  like  to  see  barriers  of  every  kind  erected 
around  this  vice,  and  merely  alluded  to  "Erskine's"  proposed 
restriction  of  a  vice  which  he  said  could  not  be  restrained,  in 
order  to  exhibit  the  want  of  logic  which  his  recommendation  in- 
volved. This  was  all,  sir.  And  "  Erskine's"  failure  to  notice 
the  true  issue  doubtless  had  its  natural  effect  on  the  minds  of 
his  readers.  It  showed  them  a  consciousness,  on  his  part,  that 
the  various  ideas  he  has  on  tliis  subject  are  not  joined  in  a  chain 
which  none  may  break. 

"Erskine's"  last  complaint,  that  one  kind  of  gambling,  viz: 
with  cards,  is  denounced  and  forbidden,  while  various  other 
sorts — betting,  lotteries,  etc. — are  allowed,  I  have  nothing  to  do 
with.  The  inconsistency  is  in  the  laws  of  the  land,  not  in  my 
position.  The  discrimination  in  fiivor  of  betting,  etc.,  is  doubt- 
less owing  to  the  fact  that  these  are  not  such  fonnidable  evils  as 
the  odier;  but,  if  my  power  were  eijual  to  my  wishes,  they  would 
all  be  abolished  as  immoral,  often  ruinous,  and  discreditable  to 
any  individuals,  companies,  or  especially  Churches,  that  engage 
in  them.  "Erskiue's"  inquiry,  which  he  puts  to  me,  in  rete- 
rence  to  the  fatal  effects  of  ardent  spirits,  and  his  taking  for 
granted  that  1  favor  the  licensing  of  the  drinking  houses  of  the 
land,  is  of  a  piece  with  many  other  parts  of  his  letters.  My  ar- 
ticle of  the  9th  had  nothing  in  it  to  raise  so  dark  a  suspicion. 
One  would  have  supposed  that  this  writer's  recent  Antediluvian 
experience  would  not  have  been  so  soon  forgotten.  The  great 
barrister,  sir,  whose  name  "  F>skine"  has  so  innocently  taken, 
that  eloquent  pleader,  a  man  of  wider  fume  and  larger  powers 
than  his  American  admirer,  wouhl  not  have  used  such  an  as- 
sumption as  this,  if  by  it  he  could  have  taken  even  the  strong- 
holds of  a  Howard. 

W.  M. 

Buchanan,  Botetourt  Co.,  Va. 


40 

To  W.  M. 

In  my  rejoinder  to  yonr  reply  to  my  strictures  upon  the  sup- 
pression of  gambling,  I  addressed  you,  instead  of  the  Editor  of 
tlie  Whio-.     In  your  surrejoinder,  you  make  this  allusion  to 
that  fact  j^'  I  (you)  had  no  desire  to  be  identified  with  the  author," 
&,c.     How,  sir,  does  my  addressing  you  superinduce  identifica- 
tion ?     Wlio  you  are,  or  what  you  are,  I  neither  know  nor  care;  I 
was  controlled  in  ihe  manner  of  my  reply,  by  no  other  earthly 
consideration  than  one  of  convenience,  and  I  shall  continue  to 
adhere  to  it  for  that  reason,  and  f!>r  that  reason  only.     This  is  a 
country  where  all  honorable  gentlemen  occupy  a  common  level, 
and  if  you  meant  to  insinuate  that  I,  in  respectfully  addressing 
you,  have  been  guilty  of  taking  a  liberty,  you  certainly  must  be 
not  only  desperately  in  love  with  yourself,  but  that  ton  under 
circumstances  which  threaten  you  in  no  manner  with  a  rival. 
In  your  reply  to  my  first  article,  you  denounced  one  of  my  ar- 
guments as  silly  enough  to  "  carry  its  refutation  upon  its  face." 
One  of  the  illustrations  I  had  employed  to    elucidate  another 
argument,  you  satirized  in  the  following  style:  ''The  want  of 
parallelism  between  the  two  cases  is  almost  too  palpable  to  allow 
of  discussion.     Mark  you  this  is  what  you  said,  not  what  you 
proved,  and  in  the  same  vein  you  added,  "  The  more  I  read  this 
article,  Mr.  Editor,  the  more  I  am  struck  with  its  want  of  logical 
coherence  and  force.'"     Then  to  put  a  cap  upon  the  climax  that 
would  make  yonr  harlequin  uniform  complete,  in  the  exordium 
of  your  sur-rejoinder,  with  a  sang  froid  that  amounts  to  a  capital 
joke,  yon  declare,  "I  (you)  was  studious  to  avoid  anything 
which  the  most  sensitive  courtesy  could  forbid,"  and  then  pro- 
ceed to  charge  that  "  Erskine   has  arrayed    himself  against  me 
(you)  and  that  certainly  in   not  the  most  refined  wd^Y-     Politer 
terms  (you  say)  surely  might  have  been  discovered,  after  a  brief 
search."     I  am   not  in  the   habit,  sir,  of  arming  myself  with 
search  warrants,  to  go  upon  expeditions  of  that  kind.     Moun- 
tains, 1  know  there  are  of  polite  terms,  in  this  age  of  hollow 
ceiemonics  and  empty  forms,  but  if  one  of  them  never  comes  to 
Erskine,  Erskine  will  never  go  to  it. 

Rien  de  plus  estimable  que  la  civilite,  mais  rien  de  plus  ridicule 
et  de  plus  a  charge  que  la  ceremonie.  (Nothing  is  of  more  value 
than  complaisance — nothing  more  ridiculous  than  mere  cere- 
mony.) 

"Ceremony 
Was  but  devised  at  first  to  set  a  gloss 
On  faint  deeds,  hollow  welcomes, 
Recanting  goodness,  sorry  ere  'tis  shown." 

The  advice  Robby  Burns  gave,  when  he  said 

"Ay  free  afl'  ban',  your  story  tell," 

I  generally  observe  whether  it  is 

••— —  wi  a  bosom  crony," 


41 

or  a  stranger  I  am  dealing.  1  have  long  cherished  a  profound 
contempt  for  mere  terms.  They  are  not  our  masters,  but  are 
the  most  abject  and  degraded  of  slaves.  The  selfsame  terms 
may  be  made  to  convey  good  or  evil  tidings — a  compliment  or 
an  insnit. 

Afier  that  imbecile  tool  of  the  eunnchs,  the  Emperor  Constan- 
tius,  had  imprisoned  liis  cousin  Julian  in  that  ancient  resi- 
dence of  the  Kings  of  Cappadocia,  tlie  castle  of  Marcellum,  near 
Ceasaria,  until  he  aroused  the  noble  sympathies  of  the  Empress 
Eusebia,  he  finally  yielded  to  her  sweet  persuasion  and  sent  him 
to  reign  over  the  country  beyond  the  Alps,  and  hold  in  check 
the  Sarmatians  and  wild  Isaurians,  who  not  seeming  to  respect 
any  longer  the  boundaries  of  the  Danube,  were  threatening  to 
overwhelm  Gaul.  Julian's  success  was  in  every  respect  signally 
brilliant.  He  fmght  valiantly  and  governed  mildly.  His  victo- 
ries followed  one  upon  another  rapidly.  When  Constantius  be- 
coming jealous  of  his  universal  popularity,  attempted,  under  a 
shallow  pretext  to  rob  him  of  the  elite  of  his  Gallic  array,  where- 
upon the  army  rebelled  and  proclaimed  Julian  Emperor.  At 
first  he  feigned  a  violent  hostility  to  the  people,  but  no  doubt 
that  was  all  fixed  up,  as  Gloster  and  the  Duke  of  Buckingham 
fixed  up  before  hand  the  scene  they  enacted  before  the  Lord 
Mayor  of  Ijondon,  when  the  crown  was  first  tendered  to  the 
bloody  tyrant.  Be  that  as  it  may,  Julian  finally  yielded,  and 
wrote  to  the  senate  of  Rome  a  very  enthusiastic  epistle  on  the 
subject.  In  his  letter  he  was  rather  savage  on  the  reigning  Em- 
peror Constantius.  This  involved  the  Senate  in  no  little  com- 
plexity. But  they  determined  to  gamble  out  of  it,  so  they  made 
terms  trumps  and  won  every  trick.  Constantius,  it  seems,  even 
while  he  was  holding  theyDUth  of  .lulian  in  prison,  nevertheless 
attended  carcfiilly  to  his  thorough  education.  Here  is  Gibbon's 
account  of  the  cute  manner  in  which  the  Senate  played  on  that 
fact,  "  His  application  to  the  Senate  of  Rome  which  was  still 
permitted  to  bestow  the  titles  of  Itnperial  power,  Avas  agreeable 
to  the  t'lrms  of  the  expiring  republic.  An  assembly  was  sum- 
moned by  Tertiillus,  prefect  of  the  city;  the  epistle  of  Julian 
was  read,  and  as  he  appeared  to  be  master  of  Italy,  his  claims 
were  admitted  without  a  dissenting  voice.  His  oblique  censure 
of  the  innovations  of  Constantius,  and  liis  passionate  invective 
against  the  vices  of  Constantius,  were  heard  with  less  satisfaction, 
and  the  Senate,  as  if  Julian  had  been  present,  unanimously  ex- 
claimed ''Re>pect,  we  beseech  you,  the  author  o\'  your  own 
fortunes,-'  an  artful  expression  which  according  to  the  chance  of 
war,  might  bo  difleremly  explained;  as  a  manly  reproof  of  the 
ingratitude  of  the  usurper,  or  as  a  flattering  confession  that  a 
single  act  of  such  benefit  to  the  State  ought  to  atone  for  all  the 
iaihngs  of  Constantius." 


41 

Terms,  sir,  are  mere  automatons.  Often  a  change  of  empha- 
sis changes  the  meaning;  and  you  are  laboring  under  an  egre- 
gious hallucination  when  you  imagine  that  politeness  and  refine- 
ment are  dependent  upon  terms — yea,  ahiiost  as  extravagant  an 
hallucination  as  is  that  other  very  eccentric  vagary  with  which 
you  seem  to  be  afllioted,  to  wit:  that  as  long  as  you  avoid  oppro- 
brious ejMthets  you  can  be  guihy  of  nothing  '^'the  most  sensitive 
courtesy  can  forbid."  I  will  dispose  of  these  propositions  seria- 
tim. The  significance  of  terms  are  often  regulated  by  the  con- 
text, but  much  more  frequently  and  absolutely  by  the  spirit  that 
prevails  throughout  the  article  in  which  they  appear,  and  to  sad- 
dle them  with  a  strict  letter  construction,  with  the  aroma  of  a  hbe- 
ral  spirit  all  arnind  and  about  them,  is  neither  generous  or  just. 

My  rejoinder  to  you,  sir,  was  characterized  not  by  acrimony, 
but  bonhoiiinde.  Throughout  every  syllable  of  it  kindness  was 
mingled  with  humor.     No  man  could  read  it  and  fail  to  see  that 

"  Forward  and  frolic  glee  wa&  there." 

In  such  a  spirit  there  is  no  companionship  for  discourtesy, 
and  it  is  not  for  such  a  spirit  to  be  trammeled  by  such  cobwebs 
as  are  spun  into  "terms."  It  rises  above  the* jargon  of  the 
schools  like  the  rising  sun  looms  over  the  mists  upon  the  moun- 
tain. That  I  could  have  meditated  rudeness,  it  is  simply  ludi- 
crously preposterous  to  assert,  and  your  allusion  to  it  is  wholly 
gratuitous. 

Permit  me  now.  if  you  please,  to  call  your  special  attention  to 
the  quotations  from  your  articles,  I  have  italicised  above.  The 
'■'•terms'''  in  which  ihey  are  couched  are  indisputably  the  very 
(]uintescence  of  refined  •politeness^  but  the  direct  insinuation, 
which  is  tlie  inevitable  logical  sequence  of  all  this  polite  palaver, 
IS  diat  "  Erskine"  must  be  a  chuckle-headed  noodle.  If  I  did 
NUuiible  upon  an  illustration,  wherein  ''the  want  of  parallelism" 
js  too  pdlpahle  to  rdloif  of  discussion,"  and  if  I  said  other  things 
.^o  shallow  and  silly,  ihat  they  were  utterly  destitute  of  logical 
roherence  and  force, ^^  pitiable  indeed  must  be  my  mental  pu- 
lility.  If  tliere  was  no  parallelism  where  ijou  say  there  is  none, 
it  would  have  been  perfectly  legitimate  for  you  in  that  event,  to 
have  logically  joroi/T??  it,  but  in  no  event  could  it  have  been  pro- 
)»er  or  polite  for  you  to  liave  said.  it.  Nevertheless,  you  did  say 
it,  and  therein  committed  a  flagrant  outrage  upon  the  sacred 
cannons  of  conmion  decency,  and  you  utterly  failed  to  prove  it, 
whereby  you  have  left  the  readers  of  the  Whig  in  doubt  of  which 
it  is  you  are  the  more  ignorani,  sonnd  logic  or  true  politeness. 
1  have  heard  of  people,  who  it  is  said, 

"Compound  for  sins  Ihcy  are  inclined  to, 
By  darnniaj  tbone  Ihey  have  no  mind  to." 


48 

But  it  seems  to  be  your  singular  misfortune  to  advertise  your 
own  follies,  in  the  very  flagellations  you  attempt  to  give  them, 
in  which  you  seem  to  luxuriate  in  ''damning  these  sins  you 
have  a  mind  to."  No  donbtit  was  your  own  landed  estate  illus- 
tration that  was  pa.-^sing  unrecognized  in  review,  before  your 
''  mental  eye,"  when  a  ''  want  of  parallelism,  too  palpable  to  al- 
low of  discussion,"  involuntarily  danced  olf  from  the  point  of 
your  pen.  If  it  was  not,  well  may  1  exclaim  to  you  in  the  lan- 
guage of  St.  Mathew:  ''And  why  beholdest  thou  the  mote  that 
is  in  thy  brother's  eye,  but  considerest  not  the  beim  that  is  in 
thine  own  eye." 

"  Tlio  man  wlio  hopes  his  bile  shall  not  offend, 
Should  overlook  the  pimples  of  his  friend.'' 

Notwithstanding,  sir,  you  have  presumed  to  impertinently 
twit  me  about  my  refinement  and  politeness,  I  must  insist  that 
you  stand  convicted  by  the  record,  of  a  rudeness  rougher  than  I 
have  yet  perpetrated.  Your  "terms"  may  be  more  recherche 
than  mine,  but  your  intentions  are  less  polite,  the  language  you 
employ  belongs  to  one  school  of  manners  and  the  only  interpre- 
tation of  which  it  is  susceptible  belongs  to  another,  and  between 
the  two  there  is  no  aflinity,  and  cati  exist  no  sympathy.  "  Your 
hand  is  the  hand  of  Ksau,  but  your  voice  is  the  voice  of  Jacob." 
But  I  am  beginning  shrewdly  to  suspect  that  neither  j'-our  man- 
ners or  logical  short  comings  are  fair  game  for  sport.  That  they 
are  the  result  of  mental  and  not  moral  obliquities.  Be  that  as  it 
may,  I  shall  pass  from  them  to  a  complaint  of  a  much  graver 
character,  that  1  am  constrained,  by  a  high  sense  oi  public  duty, 
to  bring  against  you,  and  to  me  it  is  a  source  of  painiiil  regret 
that  while  those  sons  of  mine,  to  which  y«>u  made  so  thoughtful 
an  allusion,  are  rallying  under  the  Confederate  flag  to  battle,  un- 
til we  triumph,  or  all  is  over,  in  defence  of  the  sovereignty  of  the 
States,  I  must  be  coerced  to  arraign  and  convict  yuu  at  the  bar 
of  public  opinion,  of  sentiments  not  only  of  doubtful  modesty 
and  refinement  but  of  even  questionable  humanity.  "  Out  of 
thine  own  tnoTUh  will  I  condenm  thee." 

As  Terence  said,  sua  sihi  ^Indio  huncjuguJo, 

Not  unlike  the  unhappy  Acteon,  you  shall  be  torn  to  pieces 
by  your  own  hounds.  Here  they  are,  Tray,  Blanche,  {Sweet- 
heart, and  all  the  rest. 

"His  (Erskiiie's)  impatience,  as  soon  as  he  read  my  com- 
ments on  his  argumeiu.  was  decidedly  interesting,  as  well  to 
others  as  to  myself,  for  the  simple  reason  that  it  caused  to  pass 
before  the  mental  eye  the  image  of  a  breast  sticking  full  of  ar- 
rows," (fcc,  and  again  you  say:  "In  the  two  letters  which 
'Erskine'  has  addressed  to  me  he  has  not  succeeded  in  tugging 
one  of  these  arrows  from  his  grieved  bosom."     It  is  true,  then, 


4# 

it  would  seem,  that  you  do  not  only  chuckle  with  a  demoniac 
joy  over  what  you  suppose  are  the  exquisite  tortures  of  my  sen- 
sibilities but  ynur  ecstacies  are  redoubled  and  refined  in  the  proud 
contemplation  of  the  additional  fact  that  you  are  the  author  of 
my  terrible  agonies,  the  illiad  of  all  my  Avoes. 

No  wonder  you  emptied  the  quiver  of  your  envenomed  ridi- 
cule upon  tears,  and  the  poor  drivelling  simpleton  whose  ambi- 
tion could  soar  no  higher  than  to  lead  him  among  the  distressed, 
in  search  for  tears  to  "dry  up."  It  is  a  self-evident  proposition, 
upon  the  face  of  the  record  you  have  made,  that  you  cherish  a 
withering  scorn  for  the  lachrymose  infirmity.  On  your  stony 
heart,  no  doubt,  drops  of  human  woe  could  not  descend,  from 
pity  pleading  eyes,  bitter  enough  to  produce  any  other  effect 
than  is  produced  by  the  pattering  of  the  wintry  rain  that  freezes 
as  it  falls  upon  the  mountain  rock  Your  savage  ferocity  and 
irrepressible  vanity  has  but  one  parallel  in  history.  When  the 
question  was  asked — 

"  Who  killed  cock-robin? 
I,  said  the  sparrow, 
With  my  bow  and  arrow, 
I  killed  cock-robin." 

Anybody  can  see  that  that  sparrow  felt  his  oats,  that  he  fully 
realized  the  vast  renown  he  had  won,  and,  moreover,  that  he 
had  such  a  devouring  passion  for  horn-blowing,  that,  indelicate 
as  it  might  be,  he  could  not  refrain  from  giving  his  own  trumpet 
a  toot.  No  man  that  ever  had  within  him  the  shadow  of  a 
soul,  could  fail  to  enjoy  the  intensely  interesting  spectacle  that 
sparrow  made  in  the  felicitous  conceit,  of  which  he  was  evi- 
dently possessed,  of  the  dazzlingly  magnificent  character  of  the 
achievement,  for  the  honors  of  which  he  stood  before  the  whole 
world  wittiout  a  rival.  But,  it  seems,  he  is  to  have  a  rival  in 
ultimata,  one  who  so  emulates  his  taste  and  style,  that  he  has 
determined  to  travel  to  eternal  renown  with  him  on  the  same 
river,  or  at  least  to  float, 

"  Mingling  with  his  fame  forever." 

Accordingly,  in  the  same  vein,  the  sparrow  spoke  you  too  publish 
the  fact  that  you,  too,  have  a  ''  bow  and  arrow,"  and  that,  more- 
over, it  has  not  been  idle.  Here  is  a  parallel  not  obnoxious  to 
your  terrible  anathemas  against  parallels  that  are  not  parallels. 
That  f)nd  conceit,  which  was  to  the  sparrow  a  source  of  joy, 
was  to  others  a  source  of  merriment,  and  that  is  literally  and 
precisely  the  history  of  your  case.  He,  no  doubt,  honestly  be- 
lieved he  was  hatched  to  he  cock-robin's  slayer,  and  you,  no 
doubt,  as  honestly  believe  that  you  were  burn  to  become  Ers- 
kine's  annihilator.  He  seem  to  think  that  there  was  nothing 
indelicate  in  blowing  his  own  horn,  and  here  again  you  have 


45 

followed  close  in  the  footsteps  of  your  immortal  prototype.  He 
tells  us  that  his  weapon  was  a  bow  and  arrow.  You  tell  us 
identically  the  same  story  about  your  weapon.  He  said  enough 
to  prove  that  he  was  a  bloody-minded,  bloodthirsty  sparrow,  and 
you  have  said  enough  lo  establish  your  claims,  too,  to  a  san- 
guinary mind  and  appetite.  He  was  endowed  with  a  rare  de- 
gree of  courage,  and  1  rtitend  to  assert  and  prove,  Monday,  that 
you  possess  that  splendid  quality  to  a  degree  almost  verging  upon 
a  mania.'  He  was  rhapsodical  in  his  allusion  to  what  he  had 
done  with  his  bow  and  arrow.  You  are  extatic  in  your  allusion 
to  what  you  imngine  you  have  done  with  yours.  He  was  full 
of  ambition.  His  speech  proves  it.  You  are  full  of  ambition. 
Your  speeches  prove  it.  He  is  immortal,  and  for  i/inf  reaso?i  you 
imll  be.  Do  yon  think,  sir,  ''the  want  of  parallelism  between 
the  two  cases  is  almost  too  palpable  to  allow  of  discussio7i,^^  or 
is  not  the  parallelism  itself,  entirely  too  palpable  to  admit  of  dis- 
cussion. 

Mark  you,  I  maintain  that  in  blowing  your  own  horn  you 
have  violated  no  canon  of  lex  scripta.  Kgotism  and  swaggering 
belong  to  the  rights  of  persons,  as  Blackstone  would  class  them. 
So  give  an  uncurbed  licence  to  your  penchant  for  horns  and 
whenever  you  want  to  blow,  blow.  There  is  no  law  to  make 
you  afraid.  I  have  been  poking  a  little  fun  at  you  about  it,  only 
because  I  felt  under  obligations  to  Publeus  Syri's  for  thoughts 
he  bequeathed  to  me,  from  which  1  have  often  derived  great 
pleasure,  and  as  he  once  said  qui  svipsum  laudat  cito  deiisoiem 
ijivcidt,  (he  who  sounds  his  own  trumpet  will  soon  meet  with 
those  who  will  turn  him  into  ridicule,)  I  determined  he  should 
not,  if  1  could  prevent  it,  be  caught,  in  your  case,  in  a  fib. 

Having  disposed,  in  my  poor  way,  of  your  facetious  eccentri- 
cities about  refinement,  modesty  and  politeness,  I  will  bid  you 
adieu,  hoping  that  we  will  meet  again  next  Monday,  when  I  am 
afraid  1  sliall  be  compelled  to  expose  the  miserable  bad  purposes 
to  which  you  prostitute  some  of  your  very  best  qualities.  Until 
then,  however,  joax  vobiscuiri — a  tranquil  pillow  to  you. 

ERSKINE. 


To  W.  M. 

I  promised  on  Saturday  to  prove  to-day,  that  in  the  possession 
of  that  shining  quality  called  courage,  '•  yourself  alone  could  be 
your  only  parallel."  There  is,  I  am  aware,  a  desperation  re- 
sembling courage,  of  which  it  is  said  cowards  are  capable;  but 
I  entertain  not  the  slightest  apprehension  that  1  have  mistaken 
the  one  for  the  other.  It  is  generally  in  the  dernier  resort  that 
we  meet  with  desperation  at  all.     It  is  the  ollspring  of  mental 


46 

and  physical  convulsions  and  the  inseparable  companion  of  em- 
ergencies and  extremities.  When  all  is  at  stake  it  performs  the 
same  office  courage  does  in  quest  of  excitement,  the  redress  of 
injuries  or  the  support  of  the  right.  Now,  my  opinion  is,  that 
of  late  yf^n  have  only  been  in  quest  of  a  little  excitement;  but 
in  that  adventure  it  certainly  must  be  admitted  that  you  have  ex- 
hibited a  courage  it  would  take  the  desperation  of  a  craven,  when 
his  very  existence  was  at  stake,  to  riv^al.  A  Greek  philosopher  of 
eminence  once  defined  courage  to  be  an  indifference  to  conse- 
quences. If  this  be  a  correct  definition,  the  memory  of  Chevalier 
Bayard  may  well  tremble  for  its  laurels,  and  the  star  of  the  heroic 
Conde,  as  well  as  that  of  the  brave  Merci,  to  whose  memory  he  paid 
so  delicate  and  thrilling  a  tribute  in  the  monument  he  erected  over 
his  ashes,  as  well  as  that  of  the  ill-fated  Ney,  who  won  at  the 
cannon's  mouth  the  imperishable  sobriquet  of  the  ^'bravest  of 
the  brave,"  must  all  pale  before  the  dazzling  splendors  and  tran- 
scendent effulgence  of  this  bran  new  luminary  that  has  only  but 
yesterday  shot  into  its  orbit  upon  the  horizon  of  Botetourt;  for, 
my  dear  sir,  from  your  first  appearance  in  this  controversy,  you 
have  exhibited  a  morbid  indifierence  to  consequence  altogether 
sufficient  to  put  the  martyrs  of  stoicism  themselves  to  the  blush. 
In  the  first  place,  you  have  deliberately,  roundly  and  emphati- 
cally asserted  that  1  have  assumed  positions  and  made  issues  I 
never  assumed  or  made,  all  to  furnish  an  excuse  to  say  something 
that  would  have  been  brighter  than  lightning  or  sharper  than  a 
two-edged  sword,  if  it  only  had  not  been  a  simple  game  of  bat- 
tle-door and  shuttle-cock,  where,  as  in  the  play,  the  author  fixes 
up  the  speeches  of  both  parties.  How  could  a  man  of  your 
native  astuteness  fail  to  see  that  you  never  could  perpetrate  such 
folly  and  escape  detection 7  And  if  you  cooly  made  up  your 
mind  to  become  a  public  butt  for  the  amusement  of  the  ^'lookers 
on  in  Vienna,"  I  must  be  permitted  to  insist  that  therein  you  do 
exhibit  a  stoically  heroic  indifference  to  consequences.  From 
the  numerous  and  enormous  blunders  yon  are  continually  making 
and  repeating,  the  inference  is  a  fair  one,  that  while  it  is  proba- 
ble you  are  a  laborious  reader,  it  is  equally  certain  that  you  are 
only  a  superficial  student,  and  that  after  having  flitted  through 
and  over  a  thousand  pages  you  resemble  a  man  who  has  traveled 
a  long  journey  with  closed  eyes  and  ears.  He  returns,  of  course^ 
with  a  traveled  body,  but  not  a  traveled  mind.  He,  however, 
must  have  gotten  the  benefit  of  fresh  air  and  exercise,  whereas 
you  will  have /osMhose  benefits  without  acquiring  any  equiva- 
lent in  lieu  thereof — but,  on  the  contrary,  have  acquired  an  ha- 
bitual superficiality,  and  the  result  is  you  simply  read  every  thing 
and  seriously  study  nothing,  and  yet  you  presume,  upon  a  mere 
cursory  glance,  to  dispose  in  solemn  form  and  put  at  rest  finally 
and  forever,  questions  of  whatever  gravity  and  magnitude  may 


47 

chance  to  come  before  you.  This,  no  man,  without  the  courage 
of  a  lion,  could  ever  dare  to  do.  But  I  must  do  you  the  justice 
to  add,  that  as  a  full  recompense  for  your  uniform  habit,  of  never 
giving  to  other  men's  thoughts  more  than  a  superficial  glance, 
you  are  knightly  and  considerate  enough  never  to  bother  other 
men  with  thoughtsof  your  own,  deamnding  more  than  you  give. 
(Such  munificence  is  wortliy  of  a  Prince,  such  benevolence  of 
a  phiIantliropist,and  as  nothing  ismon;  proverbial  than  that  gene- 
rosity and  courage  are  inseparable  concomitants,  it  furnishes  ad- 
<iitional  evidence  of  your  redoubtable  pluck.  In  the  last  two 
letters  I  had  the  temerity  to  address  you,  I  presented  to  you  se- 
ven^ fair  issues,  and  how  did  you  meet  them.  Precisely  as  it  is 
saitT  a  fellow  in  a  buggy  once  behaved,  when  he  met  on  the  high- 
way a  six  horse  team.  The  road  was  narrow  and  out  of  the 
beaten  path,  on  either  side  it  was  boggy,  so  the  man  undertook 
to  bully  the  teamster,  and  in  an  explosion  of  dignified  indigna- 
tion, demanded,  "Are  you  not  going  to  getoutot  my  way,  sir?" 
What  will  you  do  if  I  don't,  quietly  asked  the  wagoner?  What 
will  I  do?  why,  sir,  I  will  soon  show  you  what  I  will  do  !  A 
moment  at  suspense  elapsed,  whereupon  the  wagoner,  with  an 
apparently  very  calm  indifference  to  the  consequences,  replied, 
"  Well,  sir,  what  will  ii  be?  Why,  sir,  retorted  the  proprietor 
of  the  one  horse  establislunent,  if  you  do  not  get  out  of  my  way 
instautlj^,  I  will  certainly get  out  of  yours. 

I  threw  down  to  you  ^'^^^o  after  gage,  which  you,  instead  of 
picking  up,  play  on  me  the  buggy  tiick  and  go  dodging  around 
my  six  horse  team  of  facts,  and  it  is  the  natural  result  of  that 
superficial  way  you  have  of  reading  everything  and  bobbing 
around  generally. 

You  seem  to  look  all  around  an  issue  without  ever  seeing  it, 
and  then  you  write  all  around  it,  without  ever  touching  it.  In 
this  you  remind  me  of  a  young  orator  I  once  knew.  He  had  a 
bosom  crony,  in  wfiose  criticisms  he  had  great  confidence.  Alter 
having  made,  on  one  occasion,  one  of  liis  'Tousers,"  as  soon  as 
lie  closed  he  caught  the  eye  of  his  friend,  which  he  fancied 
beamed  with  more  than  its  ordinary  light,  and  mistaking  ii  for 
approbatiim,  he  rushed  up  to  him  and  exi^laimed,  ''Now,  Tom, 
what  liave  you  got  to  say  to  that  speech?"  ^'O,"  replied  Tom, 
"  1  have  no  hesitation  in  saying,  rmd  I  say  it  boldly,  it  is  the 
greatest  speech  you  ever  did  deliver,  and  will  remain  to  your 
dying  day  the  great  speevdi  of  your  lite.  In  truth,  it  has  but  one 
solitary  fault"  "0,iny  beloved  friend,  you  will  strangle  me 
with  joy.  Only  one  faulll  and  that  too  comes  from  you,  who 
have  lieretofire  had  a  tlKMisand  faults  to  find  with  my  speeches. 
How  I  mu.st  have  improved!  Who  will  rieny,  now,  that  I  am  a 
growing  and  rising  man'  Only  nno  f-mll!  Do  tell  me,  Tom, 
what  is  that  one,  I  dare  say  it  is  a  small  one,  and  I  may  easily 


48 

correct  it."  "O,"  replied  Tom,  '^yoii  never  touched  the  sub- 
ject?" Now,  (hose  last  two  articles  of  yours  in  the  Whig,  [ 
dare  say,  are  far  better  articles  than  Tom's  friend's  speech  was  a 
speech,  but  they  were  afflicted  with  precisely  the  same  disorder. 
I  presented  yon  with  facts,  which  it  was  for  you  to  admit  or  deny, 
and  you  did  neither,  but,  dodging  an  issue,  failed,  exactly  as 
Tom's  friend  did,  to  touch  the  subject.  Nevertheless,  I  enjoyed 
your  articles  hugely;  it  was  plain  enough  to  be  seen  that  you 
"was  in  a  weaving  way,"  and  "spent  your  figures  free,"  and 
to  me,  it  has  always  been  a  source  of  unalloyed  delight,  to  look 
on  at  others  when  they  are  warming  up  with  the  enjoyment  of 
themselves.  But  there  is  one  other  additional  evidence  of  your 
Cassarean  pluck,  that  I  have  not  yet  adduced;  I  allude  to  thfi  in- 
domitable obstinacy  and  dashing  boldness,  with  which  you 
couch  your  lance  and  poise  your  speai- in  defence  of  any  blunder 
you  may  have  made  per  fas  et  ne  fas,  you  remind  me  of  that 
chivalric  wight  described  by  the  poet  when  he  said : 

"  He  strives  for  trifles  and  for  toys  contends, 
And  then  in  earnest,  what  he  says,  defends." 

In  this  you  evince  a  nobility  of  nature  that  is  God-like.  It 
makes  me  forget  and  forgive  all  your  faults,  and  want  to 
hug  you.  Some  people  might  be  found  vulgar  enough  to  christen 
this  stupidity,  but  I  have  a  better,  and  a  holier  name  for  it,  to 
wit,  humanity.  No  man  that  ever  saw  in  a  family  of  children, 
one  who  was  a  cripple,  blind,  deaf,  mute,  or  deformed,  could 
have  failed  to  notice  that  the  poor  unfortunate  little  one  was  the 
pet  of  Its  parents.  To  their  warm  and  tender  bosoms  ihaj  drew 
it  nearer,  and  over  its  wayward  wanderings  they  \\'atched  with 
a  fonder  care,  and  in  this  they  exemplified  a  God  like  humanity; 
and  when  you  draw  near  to  your  poor  little  blind,  deaf,  mute, 
deformed  and  crippled  arguments  and  blunders,  and  draw  j?-our 
glitteriing  steel  boldly  m  their  defence,  you  do  not  only  esta- 
blish the  fact  which  none  can  dare  dispute,  that  you  have  a  su- 
})erabur)dance  of  pluck,  but  you  emulate  the  example  of  the  no- 
ble fathers  and  mothers,  who  love  their  cripples  best;  and  1  say, 
you  thereby  challenge  the  admiration,  not  only  of  Botetourt,  but 
"of  the  balance  of  mankind."  I  am  now  through  with  my  alle- 
gata, and  will  proceed  at  once  to  mj  probata,  and  as  my  heart  is  in 
a  soft  mood  now  toward  you,  about  your  little  cripples,  I  will  com- 
mence on  them;  and  I  prruuise  you  that  whenever  i  lay  my  hands 
on  their  tender  lindis  and  helpless  forms,  I  will  studiously  avoid 
everything  to  which  the  most  sensitive  parent  could  object.  The 
first  one  I  shall  notice  is  one  of  your  eldest,  if  not  your  first 
born.  It  is  your  ipse  dixit  that  France  and  Germany  are  infidel 
nations.  1  plead  the  general  issue  of,  not  guilty,  to  this  count 
iu  your  indictment,  and  did  suppose  that  you  would,  upon  re- 


49 

flection,  (by  the  way  do  you  ever  do  that  thing — reflect?)  enter  a 
nolle  prosequi,  blow  your  horn,  (as  you  are  so  fond  of  horn  blow- 
ing,) and  c;ill  ofl'  your  dogs,  Tray,  Blanche,  Sweetheart,  and  all  the 
rest.  But  that  superficial  way  you  have  of  looking  at  matters, 
united  with  that  ennobling  atfortinn  you  cherish  for  your  de- 
formed offspring,  rallies  you  before  the  country  to  demand  a  trial. 
Well,  you  shall  have  it.  And  the  first  question  with  which  I 
confront  you  is,  when  were  France  and  Germany  infidel  nations? 
Tliere  is  but  one  way  to  ascertain,  and  that  is  from  the  musty 
tomes  of  history.  On  this  issue,  you  hold  the  affirmative,  and 
are  bnund  to  produce  the  proof;  and  proceeding  upon  the  pre- 
sumiMion  that  you  imagine  you  have  done  so,  I  will  proceed  to 
introduce  rebutting  evidence.  In  the  first  place,  then,  literature 
istheonlyoutletcivilized  infidelity  has.  Infidels  have  no  churches 
through  which  to  disseminate  tlieir  pernicious  doguias.  So  they 
Hit  the  fli'od-gatps  of  the  press,  and  deluge  the  land  with  essays,' 
poems,  pamphlets  and  plays.  Then  we  will  have  to  look  into  the 
history  o{  French  and  German  literature,  to  ascertain  the  extent 
of  their  infidelity.  \Ve  will  commence  with  France.  Beginning 
with  the  \niddle  ages,  the  literary  history  of  France  may  be  di- 
vided into  three  periods:  The  first- extends  from  1000  to  1500, 
and  includes  the  literature  of  the  Troubadours  and  the  Trou- 
veres.  If  a  great  infidel  lived  in  this  age,  what  was  his  name? 
If  he  had  followers,  how  many?  it  was  iu  this  age,  you  must 
remember,  sir,  that  the  people  of  both  France  and  Germany  were 
wrought  into  such  a  furor  of  religious  enthusiasm  hv  Peter  the 
Hermit,  and  other  powerful  orators,  who  swept  the  whole  face  of 
all  Kurope  with  a  srorm  of  religious  eloquence,  ui-til  they  rallied 
under  the  bnnncr  of  the  cross  pious  soldiers  enough  to  sack  Je- 
rusalem, and  ft  was  in  this  period  that  ntmierous  religious  sects 
sprung  up  in  France  and  Germany.  One  I  remember  originated 
in  the  district  of  Albi,  iu  the  I'ith  century,  and  was  called  the 
Albigeneses.  It  resembled  somewhat,  the  Protestantism  of  this 
day,  and  was  tolerated  atid  y)rotected  by  the  Court  of  Toulouse. 
But  as  this  sect  augmented  and  began  to  flourish.  Innocent  III,, 
who  was  the  reigning  Roman  Pope  at  that  time,  declared  war 
against  it,  and  for  the  balance  of  that  period  France  and  Ger- 
many were  under  the  unceasing  scourge  of  theological  wars. 

'Twas  in  this  period  and  towards  the  close  of  it«that  that  re- 
nowned ecclesiastic  Froissart  ffourished,  as  also  did  Phillippede 
Commiues;  and  it  was  in  this  period  that  religion  was  of  r.u -h  uni- 
versal and  absorbing  interest  to  the  common  people,  that  the  Pil- 
grims— who  returned  from  the  H^ly  Land — resolved  to  give  a 
dramatic  exhibition  under  the  litleof  the  Fiaternity  of  the  Passion. 
One  of  the  pieces  they  enacted  was  the  history  of  our  Saviour  from 
his  cradle  to  his  sepulchre.  It  was  entirely  too  long  for  one  re- 
preseiiuitiou  and  was,  therefore,  contiaued  from  day  to  day,  and 


50 

was  attended  by  nniltitudes  of  people.  Here,  then,  is  conclusive 
proof  that,  at  this  period,  France  and  Germany  were  intensely 
christian  nations. 

The  second  period  extends  from  1500  to  1700,  and  includes 
the  revival  of  the  study  of  classical  literature,  or  the  Renaissance 
and  of  the  golden  age  of  French  literature  under  Louis  the  14th. 
IC  a  great  infidel  rose  or  reigned  in  this  period, 

"  What's  his  name  and  where's  his  hamc." 

In  this  period  history  tells  us  that  the  downfall  of  Constantino- 
ple promoted  the  revival  of  ancient  literature;  of  the  invention 
of  printing,  of  the  discovery  of  a  new  world,  of  the  decline  of 
feudalism  and  the  consequent  elevation  of  the  middle  classes, 
hut  nothing  about  infidelity.  The  Renaissance  and  Reformation 
went  lovingly  hand  in  hand  along  the  banks  of  the  Rhine  and 
Seine.  Among  those  who  eagerly  imbibed  the  spirit  of  both 
stood  the  lovely  and  loveable  Princess  Marguerite  de  Valoise, 
elder  sister  of  Francis  the  First.  Her  valet-cle-chambre  was  the 
poet  jMarot.  He  was  a  Caivanistic  theologian^  and  in  his  holy 
hymns  and  poems  were  happily  blended  familiarity,  propriety, 
elegance  and  grace,  and  they  were  universally  read. 

But  it  was  in  Calvin  that  the  Reformation,  and  in  Rabelais  that 
the  Renaissance  found  their  representative  types.  Yet  very 
many  other  intellectual,  moral  and  religious  lights  flourished  in 
this  period,  whose  rays  are  still  beaming  on  us  through  the  haze  of 
time.  Among  them  you  will  find  Balzac,  Voiture,  Menage,  Scu- 
dery,  Chaplain,  Costart,  Conrad,  the  AbbeBossuet,  and  Cardinal 
Richelieu.  And  it  v/as  about  this  time  that  that  great  original 
and  powerful  thinker,  Descartes,  opened  and  blazed  the  way  for 
Lock,  Newton  and  Liebnilz.  And  it  was  in  this  same  period  that 
Bosseret,  Bourdelone  and  Hassalon,  three  of  the  most  powerful 
pulpit  orators  the  Catholic  church  ever  produced,  llourished. 
Bosseret  addressed  the  conscience  tlirough  the  imagination,  Bour- 
dalone  through  the  judgment,  and  Massaion  through  the  feelings. 
Ai)d  it  was  these  two  centuries  that  produced  that  great  geoma- 
ll'ician  Pascal,  those  eminent  lawyers  Patru,  Pellesson,  Cochin 
and  D'Aguesseau,  those  moral  piiilosophers,  Rochefaucald  and 
La  Bnizere,  those  great  Authors  of  pure  romance,  Madame  La- 
fayette and  Fenelon,  that  incomparable  letter  writer,  Madame  de 
Sevjgne,  those  celebrated  dramatists  and  artists,  Racene  and  Cor- 
nell le,  and  those  perspicuous  and  able  historians,  Bosseret  de 
Retz  and  St.  Simon.  They  were  the  ruling  and  masterspirits 
of  this  period.     Which  one  of  them  was  an  infidel? 

The  tlhrd  period  extends  from  1700  to  the  present  day,  and  if 
France  and  Germany  are  to  be  convicted  of  national  infidelity, 
it  must  be  in  this  period  or  not  at  all,  and  I  am  free  to  admit  that 
meji  wonderfully  gifted  did  flourish  in  France  and  Germany  in 


5X 

this  period,  who  were  infidels,  but  their  infidelity  was  not  the 
source  of  their  popularity,  but  their  popularity  prevailed  even 
over  their  infidelity.     Skepticism  had  its  origin  in  the  criticism 
of  Laniott,  who  was  only  a  htcrary  skeptic.     He  raised  the  standard 
ot  revolt  against  the  worship  of  antiquity,  and  would  have  de- 
throned poetry  itself  on  the  ground  of  its  inutihty.     Thus  skep- 
ticism commenced  by  established  literary  doctrines,  becoming 
matters  of  doubt  and  controversy.     High  among  the  skeptics 
about  this  time,  stood  the  Baron  de  Montesquieu,     His  popu- 
larity was  commensurate  with  his  fame;  but  to  what  was  he  in- 
debted for  that  fame.     By  no  means  to  those  ^^  Persian  Letters," 
but  in  truth  it  was  based  upon  his  '^  Spirit  of  Laws,"  which  it 
is  accorded  on  all  hands  is  the  greatest  monument  of  human 
wisdom  erected  in  the  ISth  century.     History  says  'Mt  is  a  pro- 
found analysis  of  law  in  its  relation  with  government,  customs, 
climate,  rehgion  and  commerce."     The  book  is  inspired  with  a 
spirit  of  justice  and  humanity.     But  the  great  apostle  of  infi- 
delity in  France  was  Voltaire,  and  his  popularity  knew  no  limit 
below  the  stars.     But  to  what  was  it  attributable?     Certainly  not 
to  his  skepticism,  for  he  was  imprisoned  three  times  in  the  Bas- 
tile  and  three  times  had  to  liy  from  France  on  account  of  his 
skepticism.     Wliat  then  was  the  secret  of  his  immense  popu- 
larity.    It  was  his  poems,  essays,  dramas  and  wit.     Over  his 
dark  thoughts  his  wit  played,  like  lightning  over  dark  clouds, 
and  over  France  the  corruscations  of  his  genius  flashed  for  half 
a  century  with  a  vividness  that  dazzled  and  infatuated  all  classes 
of  society,  irrespective  of  creeds.     And  the  thunders  of  the  Vati- 
can that  expatriated  the  infidel  to-day  would  be  lost  to-morrow, 
amid  the  louder  thunders  of  the  popular  Catholic  voice  calling 
home  the  wit  like  the  whistle  of  a  sailor  boy  is  lost  amid  the 
roar  of  the.  tempest.    When  "Zaire"  was   played,  all  Catholic 
France  rushed  to  the  theatre,  and  the  greatest  honor  he  ever  re- 
ceived came  from  a  spontaneous  burst  of  enthusiasm,  with  which 
he  was  once  welcomed  upon  entering  the  theatre  while  they  were 
performing  one  of  his  plays.     He  had  for  a  long  time  been  ab- 
sent from  Paris,  and  when  the  eye  of  the  audience  fell  upon  the 
bowed  and  venerable   form  of  the  great  author  of  not  only  a 
thousand  and  one  happy  hours  of  glowing  interest  they  had  en- 
joyed, but  of  the  mental  repast  that  was  then  being  spread  be- 
Ibre  them,  their  enthusiasm  broke  through  every  restraint,  and 
burst  upon  him  like  a  tornado.     Old  men  put  their  arms  atTec- 
tionatoly  around  him.     Beautiful  women  poured  upon  him  a  re- 
freshing shower  of  passionate  kisses,  and  all  joined  in  taking  him 
vietarnns\o  the  stage,  and  enthroning  him  upon  it, and  weaving 
round  his  brow  a  wreathe  of  living  laurels.     Voltair  wept  with 
joy.     But  this  was  no  tribute  to  his  infidelity.     It  was  the  ho- 
mage  a  Catholic  people  delighted  ty  pay  to  tiausccadeut  geiiius. 


52 

His  society  was  courted  by  Frederick  tlie  Great  and  all  the  great 
intellects  and  wits  of  Europe.  But  infidelity  had  nothing  to  do 
with  all  this.  I  know  that  a  literary  society  was  formed  in 
France,  the  avowed  purpose  of  which  was  to  smite  down  re- 
ligi'in,  and  that  its  members  frequently  assembled  in  the  salons 
of  Mesdames  du  Defiant,  Geoffrin,  de  I't^spinasse  and  Baron 
d'Holback,  and  that  for  a  time  their  doctrines  spread  like  a  ma- 
laria, blasting  religion  and  morals  te:i;iporarily.  To  this  society 
belonged  tliat  cynic  and  sophist,  Diderot,  D'Alembert,  Rosseau, 
Condillac,  the  sentimentahst,  Grim,  the  philosopher,  Helvetius, 
and  the  malicious  Marmontel,  but  right  here  I  wish  to  call  your 
special  attention  to  three  prominent  facts.  The  infidels  if  they 
ever  had  anything  to  do  with  the  laws,  never  licensed  gambling; 
that  at  no  period  was  France  ever  under  the  sceptre  of  an  infidel 
King  or  Emperor,  and  that  the  communicants  of  the  Catholic 
church  did  always  and  do  now  outnumber  all  other  denomina- 
ti,  including  the  infidels  in  France,  and  if  this  does  not  prove 
that  France  never  was  and  is  not  an  infidel  nation,  then  facts 
are  impotent  and  argument  useless.  Moreover,  it  is  well  known 
to  every  student  of  history  out  of  Botetourt  that  infidelity  has 
run  its  course  in  France  and  is  now  prostrated  with  the  dry  rot. 
Necker,  tlie  father  of  Madam  de  Stael,  drew  his  bright  blade 
on  the  side  of  the  church  when  the  storm  of  infidelity  was  at  its 
wildest,  and  around  him  there  gathered  a  formidable  host  of  pow- 
erfnl  writers,  and  they  kept  the  banner  of  the  cross  flying  from 
the  masthead  of  the  church  when  the  beach  was  being  ihickly 
strewn  with  the  wreck  of  infidel  crafts.  Madame  de  Stael  and 
Chauterbriand  fought  the  battle  of  the  church  in  literature, 
Maine  de  Biran  and  Royer-Collard  in  philosophy,  and  Benjamin 
Constant  in  political  science,  and  to  no  inconsiderable  extent  they 
did  sncceed  in  neutralizing  the  baleful  influences  of  .Voltair  and 
his  school,  and  from  that  day  to  this,  infidelity  has  been  on  the 
wane  in  France.  A  Catholic  sits  on  her  throne,  Catholics  sit  in 
her  councils  and  Catholics  frame  her  laws,  and  now  what  do  you 
take  by  your  allusion  to  infidel  France,  when  it  eventuates  that 
France  never  was  and  is  noi  ivficlcl  France,  and  that  when  there 
were  more  infidels  there  than  there  were  at  any  other  time,  gam- 
thug  was  not  hcensed,and  now,  when  they  do  not  wield  over  the 
vine-clad  hills  one  shadow  of  influence,  it  is.  To  Germany  and 
the  balance  of  your  crippled  and  deformed  brats  I  will  look  to- 
morrow. 

ERSKINE. 


To  W.  M. 

Your  sweeping  charge  of  infidelity  against  France  was  made 
still  more  sweeping  by  the  inclusion  of  Germany.  Germany  is 
that  portion  of  central  Europe  which  lies  between  the  Adriatic 


58 

and  the  Baltic.  It  has  an  ancient  and  a  well  written  history. 
It  has  produced  its  full  quota  of  the  great  thinkers,  writers 
and  travellers  of  Europe.  The  arts  and  sciences  have  always 
had,  and  have  today,  more  votaries  and  patrons  there  than  they 
have  elsewhere,  and  Avhat  is  still  more  remarkable  it  always  has 
been,  and  still  continues  to  be,  the  most  intensely  religious  spot 
on  the  whole  face  of  the  civilized  globe.  Go  back,  if  you  please,, 
to  the  year  A.  D.  360,  when  IJlphilas  gave  the  Goths  his  trans- 
lation of  the  Bible,  and  come  along  up  through  the  reign  of 
Chailemagne,  and  the  Suabian  age  to  the  House  of  Hapsburg, 
and  you  will  find  no  footprints  of  infidelity  on  the  surface  of 
German  history.  The  Germans  poured  out  their  blood  like  wa- 
ter and  laid  down  their  lives  like  martyrs,  to  establish  in  Ger- 
many not  only  a  religion,  but  Me  Protestant  religion.  The  most 
important  works  of  the  I4th  and  l.5th  centuries  are  the  writings 
of  German  monks  which  kindled  and  kept  alive  a  religious  fervor 
among  tiie  middle  and  lower  classes,  whereby  a  whole  na- 
tion was  kept  waiting  to  receive  and  made  ready  to  support 
a  Reformer.  Tliey  represented  religion  as  consisting  in  the 
sentiments  of  the  heart,  rather  than  in  doctrines.  Their  main 
principle  was  that  piety  depended  not  on  ecclesiastical  forms,  but 
consisted  m  the  abandonment  of  all  selfish  passions.  Tauler,  in 
1361 ,  codified,  the  sentiments  of  these  monks  in  a  volume  which 
he  christened  ''German  Theology."  Luther,  in  a  preface  to 
this  book,  centuries  subsequently,  expresses  his  admiration  of  its 
contents  and  asserts  that  he  had  found  in  it  the  germs  of  the  Re- 
formation, and  it  was  here  on  German  soil,  long  after  the  star  of 
the  Suabian  dynasty,  under,  the  divine  light  of  which  the  Cru- 
saders flourished,  had  gone  down  in  gloom  and  blood  and  the 
sweet  tones  of  the  Suabian  lyre  had  died  away,  that  that  self- 
same Reformation  was  ushered  into  this  breathing  world.  'Twas 
in  the  I61I1  century  when  the  Emperor  and  the  Pope  were  in  all 
the  plenitude  of  their  power.  The  armies  of  the  one  were  drawn 
by  conscriptions  from  Spain,  Austria,  Naples,  Sicily  and  Bur- 
gundy, while  with  his  Inquisition  and  his  thunderbolts  of  ex- 
comnnmicatinn  the  other  coercedthe  priests  and  monks  to  rally 
under  his  banner  from  all  parts  of  the  Christian  world.  Against 
these  formidable  powers,  a  poor,  obscure  and  nameless  Augus- 
tine monk  came  forth  from  his  closet  in  the  small  university  of 
Wittenburg,  with  no  treasures  in  his  coffers  nor  arms  of  any  kind 
in  his  hands  save  the  Bible  alone,  and  in  a  clear  manly  voice  de- 
fied the  Emperor,  the  Pope,  the  clergy,  and  the  nobility.  And 
around  him  gathered  Melancthon,  Manuel  Zwingle,  Fishart, 
Franck,  Arnd  and  .Tacob  Beehn,  and  they  impressed  the  litera- 
ture and  theology  of  that  age  with  their  master's  spirit  and  name; 
and  most  properly,  for  he  was  not  only  the  most  pronn'nent  cha- 
racter of  that  age  but  he  was  tlic  exponent  of  their  national  feel- 


54 

ing  and  gave  shape  and  utterance  to  thoughts  and  sentiments 
which  had  been  before  universally  felt  but  obscurely  expressed, 
and  his  inflnence  was  acknowledged  in  almost  every  department 
of  German  life.  "  The  retnoddeling  of  the  Gorman  tongue  may 
be  said  to  h.ave  gone  hand  in  hand  with  the  Reformation,  and  it 
is  to  Luther  more  than  any  other  it  owes  its  rapid  progress.  His 
translation  of  the  Bible  was  the  great  work  of  the  period,  and 
gives  to  him  the  deserved  title  of  creator  of  German  prose.  The 
Scriptures  ii:e?-e  now  familiarly  read  hy  all  classes  and  never  has 
their  beautiful  simplicity  been  more  admirably  rendered,"  In 
the  17th  centuiy  flourished  Opitz,  Pufendorf,  Kepler,  Arnold 
and  Paul  Gerhard,  the  sacred  hymns  of  some  of  whom  are  still 
heard  in  the  churches  of  Germany.  In  the  18th  century  Klop- 
stock,  Lessing,  Weiland  and  the  eminent  theologian  Herder  were 
the  great  German  theological  and  literary  lights.  Early  in  the 
present  century  Goethe  and  Schiller  made  their  appearance.  The 
names  of  their  cotemporaries  and  successors  like  the  arrows  of 
the  Persians  at  Thermopyl^  would  make  a  cloud  that  would  ob- 
scure the  Sun,  and  among  them  I  dare  say  there  might  be  found 
an  occasional  transcendentalist  who  is  a  metaphysical  infidel  but 
the  infidels  of  Germany  are  few  in  number  and  morally  impo- 
tent. They  have  no  representative  type  who  is  a  master  spirit. 
For  the  respect  that  you  have  for  the  memory  of  Martin  Luther 
and  William  of  Orange  and  for  a  land  over  which  war  raged  for 
thirty  years  that  Protestant  Christianity  might  flourish  there,  I  do 
beseech  you  retract  your  scandalous  calumny  against  Germany. 

There  may  be,  in  Germany,  to-day,  a  few  infidels,  but  they 
cannot  mould  and  fashion  the  nationality  of  Germany.  Hume, 
Gibbon  and  Bolingbrooke  were  infidels,  nevertheless,  Britton  was 
not  an  infidel  nation.  The  people  of  the  United  States  elevated 
to  the  Presidency  a  confirmed  skeptic.  Were  his  party  all  infi- 
dels? Bring  the  rule  home  with  which  you  attempted  to  damn 
Germany  and  France,  and  the  Confederate  and  United  States 
will  have  to  take  a  damning  too,  and  Virginia  her  full  share  of 
it. 

Since  publishing  my  first  article  on  this  subject,  I  have  ascer- 
tained that  a  revenue  is  drawn  from  gambling,  by  the  govern- 
ments both  of  Spain  and  Italy.     Are  they  infidel  nations? 

In  your  first  article  you  asserted  in  unequivocal  and  unquali- 
fid  terms,  that  pnblic  opinion  had  put  down  female  gambling. 
Here  is  your  language:  '■'  If  the  gentleman  had  familiarized  him- 
self with  the  history  of  gaming,  he  would  have  known  that  the 
public  opinion,  of  which  he  speaks  slightingly,  as  rather  inchn- 
ingthe  other  side  has  put  an  end  to  female  gambling  for  money .'''' 
Now,  when  I  proved  that  females  stiU  gambled  at  Saratoga,  N. 
Y.,  Baden-Baden,  and  other  fashionable  resorts  in  Europe,  Avhat, 
sif;  is  your  reply?    Here  it  is.    "  Does  that  refute  my  statement. 


55 

When  I  speak  of  Addison  and  of  English  opinion  as  moulded  by 
his  writings,  that  I  was  extending  this  influence  to  Germany, 
where  a  dilferent  language  is  used  and  a  diflerent  type  of  civili- 
zation obtains."  Now,  just  allow  me  to  quietly  ask,  did  elfront- 
ery  ever,  in  a  gambling  "hell,"  or  an  iniidel  AY</o?i,  put  on  a 
more  thorough  dare-devil  face  than  this. 

in  the  iirsl  place,  nothing  is  better  knowji  in  the  literary  world 
than  that  the  "  Spectator"  has  been  translated  into  the  French  and 
German  languages,  and  published  in  France  and  Germany,  and 
no  doubt  has  been  as  generally  read  in  those  countries  as  it  has 
been  in  England.     If  so,  wliy  are  not  the  truths  it  contains 
entitled  to  as  nuich  weight  ni   one  country  as  in  the  other? 
Doubtless,  however,  on  this  card  you  "coppered"  what  you 
supposed  to  be  the  extant  of  the  information  of  Erskine  and  the 
public.     But  I  only  allude  to  these  facts  to  show  you  cannot  be 
jjermitted  to  wriggle  through  the  loop  hole  that  you  think  you 
are  squirming  out  at,  for   the  facts  do  not  occupy  a  position 
from   which   they   can   be   made   to    screen   the   spasms   your 
attempt  to  squeeze  through  that  loop  hole  has  brought  on  you. 
Your  language  in  this  instance,  whether  intentionally  or  fortui- 
tously, is  pointed,  perspicuous  and  comprehensive,  and  to  give 
it  all  of  its  force,  you  italicised  it  as  I  have  quoted  it  italicised, 
and  sir,  you  did  not  therein  as  anybody  can  see,  speak  of  the 
suppression  of  female  gambhng  "as  a  general  thing,"  or  as  a 
"vice,"  or  among  one  people  more  than  another,  but  your  asser- 
tion swept  the  face  of  heuiispheres,  and  literally  pulverized  the 
dry  bones  of  the  assumed    to    be,  dead   habit.     And  if  you 
only  meant  to  refer  to  the  Anglo  Saxon  race,  or  to  the  sup- 
pression of  a    "general,  leminine  indulgence  in  tliis  vice,  the 
presumption  of  which  you   are  guilty  in  attempting  to  instruct 
the  public  before  you  are  capable  of  saying  that  which   you 
want  to   say,  is   worthy   only  of  your   landed   estate   parallel 
and  logic,  your  cock  sparrow  egotism  and   vanity,  and  your 
Botetourt  politeness  ajid  refinement,  and  liunishes  another  evi- 
dence of  your  chronic  superficiality.     You  do  not  only  read 
superficially  that   which  others  write,  but  you  read  your  own 
elTusions  in   the   same   way.     Now,  this  is   not  only  at   war 
with  true  politeness  and  refinement  at  home,  but  is  extremely 
impolitic,  for  if  you  M'ill  not  treat  your  own  offspring  with  com- 
mon respect,  how  can  you  expect  tiie  world  to  do  it.     And  for 
all  the  cavalier  treatment  your  mongrel  brood  of  o})inions  and  as- 
sertions (of  the  paternity  of  an  ar^unient  up  to  this  time,  I  be- 
lieve you  to  be  innocent)  may  hereafter  receive,  you  will  doubt- 
less be  indebted  to  "the  j)ower  of  your  own   example."     But 
this  sentence  is  one  of  your  unfortunate  progeny,  whom  I  sup- 
pose you  do  not  care  how  much  I  cliastise,  for  it  has  deliberately 
lied  on  its  papa.     You  say  you  told  it  to  say  one  thing,  and  it 


56 

says  you  told  it  to  say  another.  Of  course  the  "  power  of  ex- 
ample" being  irresistible,  I  am  bound  to  and  do  beheve  you. 
Now,  sir,  allow  me  to  inform  you  that  the  females  who  gamble 
at  Baden-Baden  and  elsewhere  in  Europe,  are  rarely  ever  the  soft 
blue  eyed  beauties  of  the  Teutonic  race,  but  are  the  more  gay  and 
(asfiionable  and  less  religious  belles  and  dames  who  flit  and  flut- 
ter through  the  same  salons  in  West  End  and  Grosvenor  Square, 
which  the  wit  of  Addison  once  irradiated.  In  my  allusion  to 
the  talents  and  accomplishments  of  certain  gamblers,  I  did  not 
pretend  to  speak  from  personal  knowledge.  I  never  saw  poor 
Prindle.  1  did  not  know  the  graduate  to  whom  I  made  allusion, 
and  in  speaking  of  a  remarkably  brilliant  colloquist  of  this  city, 
I  distinctly  said  -'I  am  told"  such  an  one  resides  here,  and  in 
alluding  to  the  high  position  other  gamblers  occupied  tor  inte- 
grity in  the  confidence  of  honorable  gentlemen  here  who  know 
them,  I  spoke  of  their  reputations,  and  gave  no  opinion  of  my 
own.  Yet  so  superficial  was  the  glance  you  gave  it,  or  careless 
the  allusion  you  made  to  it,  that  you  charge  these  opinions  home 
upon  me  as  mine.  Here,  sir,  is  one  of  your  own  "  positive  state- 
ments which  is  entirely  without  foundation."  If  you  think  it 
amoiuits  to  a  '^mantle,"  it  is  yours,  and  the  weather  is  sug- 
gestive. 

Already  I  have  been  relnctanfly  compelled  to  make  more  than 
one  allusion  to  a  characteristic  of  yours,  that  does  not  o)]ly  ap- 
pear to  be  preeminently  prominent,  but  constitutional,  to  wit, 
your  vanity.  But  it  was  ''  more  in  sorrow  than  in  anger"  I  did 
it.  With  you  it  amounts  almost  to  a  fanaticism.  So  vain  are 
you  of  your  erudition,  that,  tor  the  sake  of  an  opportunity  to  pa- 
rade your  pedantry  before  the  stare  of  the  multitude,  you  do  not 
hesitate  to  summon  a  witness  to  the  stand  from  the  summit  of 
Mt.  Parnassus  against  your  own  cause.  Wlien  I  saw  that  quo- 
tation in  i/ow  article  I  marvelled  as  did  the  old  virtuoso  when  he 
saw  a  fly  preserved  in  ambier. 

*'  lie  wondered  not  that  the  thing  was  either  rich  or  rare 
He  only  wondered  how  the  devil  it  jjot  there." 

Then,  again,  toward  the  close,  your  antediluvian  allusion, 
smacks  siTiartly  of  the  idea  that  you  thought  that  that  flood  had 
been  gotten  up  more  for  your  benefit  than  to  cleanse  the  world 
of  its  wickedness,  that  you  were  destined  to  realize  more  fame 
from  crossing  it,  than  Sir  James  Cook  did  from  his  voyage  round 
the  world,  and  that  by  the  dint  of  your  omnipotent  genius,  you 
had  identified  yourself  with  it  so  thoroughly,  that  no  scholar,  of 
proper  refinement,  would  ever  allude  to  it  again  in  your  presence, 
as  Noah's  flood,  but  that  hencefi)rth  and  forever,  it  would  be 
bound  to  be  known  as  W.  jVl.'s  flood,  and  so  designated  ui  chro- 
nology and  all  the  Encyclopedias.    No  doubt  you  have  often 


fancied  of  late,  that  you  could  distinctly  hear  resounding  through 
the  lapse  of  centuries,  the  roar  of  its  angry  surges  as  they  lifted 
up  their  loud  voices  to  chant  the  requiem  of  the  lost  millions, 
over  whose  graves  they  rolled.  Evidently,  it  is  your  deliherate 
purpose  to  take  possession  of  and  appropriate  that  Hood  and  why 
not.  Deucalion  claims  one;  but  his  was  subsequent  to  yours, 
and  must  have  been  rather  a  small  affiiir,  not  deep  enough  water 
for  you,  hut  his  success  justifies  your  ambition  and  as  Noah  died 
in  possession  of  the  whole  world  it  is  not  right  to  claim  for  him 
that  flood  too. 

The  only  evidence  by  which  I  proved  that  there  must  have 
been  gaming  before  the  flood  was  what  is  technically  termed 
''presumptive,"  and  I  was  amazed  at  your  abrupt  and  uncondi- 
tional rejection  of  it,  for  surely  in  this  controversy,  and  I  doubt 
not  elsewhere,  you  have  presumed  enough  yourself  to  have 
found  out  long  ago,  through  your  feelings  if  not  otherwise,  that 
in  presumption  there  certainly  must  be  evidence  of  somethiyig 
neither  refined  or  polite. 

But  why  did  you  institute  so  pointed  a  parallel  between  Lord 
Erskine  and  myself?  I  am  bound  to  suspect  that  it  was  because 
you  knew  that  you  could  not,  and  hoped  I  would  not  survive 
the  contrast.  But  thank  Heaven,  I  am  still  inter  vivos.  "  I  still 
live,"  little  as  I  pretend  to  be  the  peer  of  the  illustrious  British 
Lord;  but,  if  I  only  had  half  of  your  fanatical  vanity,  1  never 
should  have  known  I  was  not  his  peer,  and  should  be  too  happy 
to  care  a  baubee  v)hat  you  thought  about  it.  But  you  have  dis- 
covered a  sovereign  panacea  for  all  the  moral  ills  that  gambling 
flesh  is  heir  to.  In  the  first  place,  your  theory  is  without  the 
merit  of  originality,  and,  moreover,  lacks  another  and  still  more 
important  merit,  to  wit:  practicality.  Ccs  discours  il  est  vrai 
sont  fort  beaux  dans  un  livre.  (All  this  will  do  very  well  for  a 
book. ) 

In  the  South  it  has  been  long  since  again  and  again  tried,  and 
exploded,  and  why?  There  is  a  logical  maxim  which  runs, 
"the  virtue  of  a  law  does  not  consist  so  much  in  the  severity  as 
the  certainty  of  punishment,"  and  its  truth  has  been  forcibly  ex- 
emplified in  all  the  Southern  States,  where  gambling  has  been 
made  a  felony,  but  no  gambler  has  ever  been  made  a  felon. 
AVhen  you  nuike  a  vice  which  has  hitherto  only  been  a  misde- 
meanor suddeidy  assimie  the  huge  proportions  of  a  felony,  the 
people  say  that  you  allowed  them  to  become  addicted  to  it  as  a 
misdemeanor,  and  then  want  to  put  upon  them  for  the  practice 
of  it  the  penalties  of  a  felony,  this,  they  say,  has  in  it  cxpost  facto, 
blood,  and  morally,  it  becomes  a  dead  letter.  A  prosecution  un- 
der it,  would  furnish  much  stronger  evidence  of  the  malice,  than 
it  would  of  the  virtue,  oi  the  informer,  and  the  eflfect  of  it  will 
dishonor,  if  it  does  not  defeat  the  law  aiid  protect,  if  it  does  uot 
b 


68 

provoke  and  abet  culprits.  When  you  imprudently  encumber  a 
law  with  a  harsher  penalty  than  the  feelings  of  the  public  will 
sanction^,  you  will  thereby  at  once  separate  public  sympathy  from 
the  law,  and  twine  it  tenderly  around  the  persecuted  criminal, 
and  this  must  inevitably  enure  to  the  permanent  prejudice  of  law 
and  order,  by  manuring  and  watering  the  vigorous  mots  of  crime 
and  sending  them  deeper  into  the  earth  and  causing  its  Upas  fo- 
liage to  nourish  more  luxuriantly  above  it. 

One  of  the  facts  which  was  in  my  six- horse  team,  and  which 
when  1  presented,  you  attempted  to  ridicule,  but  did  not  dare 
to  deny,  was  the  well  known  integrity  of  certain  gamblers. 
Rdiicule  is  a  powerful  weapon,  only  when  it  is  hurled  against 
sophismS;  mere  casuistry  or  fanaticisms.     Then 

"  Ridiculum  acri 
Fortius  et  melius  magnas  pkrumque  secat  res." 

"  A  jest  in  scorn  points  out  and  hits  the  thing, 
More  home  than  the  morosest satire's  sting, 
And  ridicule  shall  frequently  prevail, 
And  cut  the  knot  where  graver  reasons  fail." 

But  when  its  poisoned  arrows  hit  facts  they  rebound.  When 
Cervantese  opened  the  batteries  of  his  sarcasm  and  drollery  on 
Knight  Errantry,  he  fired  74  pound  bomb  shells  at  a  gossamer 
Ibrtification.  and  he  blew  it  into  a  nonentity.  Don  Q-uixote  was 
read,  and  the  '^ order"  vanished.  But  when  Tom  Payne  and 
V'oltairc  attempted  to  fire  precisely  the  same  kind  of  ammunition 
at  the  Bible — the  very  battlements  of  Heaven — their  shells 
rebonnded  before  they  exploded,  and  did  all  the  mischief  they 
did  at  all  in  their  own  ranks.  Tom  Payne  and  Voltaire  are  no 
more,  but  that  Eternal  Harp  of  the  Great  Jehovah — the  Bible,  al- 
beit upon  its  celestial  strings  have  fallen  the  blighting  breath  of 
twenty-five  centuries,  yet  when  over  them  the  soft  low  sigh  of 
faith  tloats,  they  still  give  forth  an  iEolean  music,  that  stirs  the 
highest  and  holiest  hopes  that  sooth  the  bruised  bosom  of 
fallen  humanity.  If  that  which  I  stated  was  not  the  truth,  it 
was  beneath  ridicule;  if  it  was  the  truth,  it  was  above  it,  and  I 
have  the  opinion  of  gentlemen,  than  whom  none  stand  higher  in 
this  city,  that  there  are  gamblers  here  whose  integrity,  that  ma- 
lignant breath,  Avhich  is  bought  and  sold  every  day,  cheap,  un- 
der the  name  of  scandal,  never  soiled.  Attempt  to  send  such 
men  to  the  Penitentiary,  branded  as  felons,  lor  playing  a  fair 
game  of  cards,  and  the  nature  that  is  in  the  people  will  bear  it 
not.  Whereas  if  you  will  make  cheating  and  swindling  at  cards 
felonies,  and  detect,  convict,  and  condemn  scoundrels,  under 
this  statute,  all  honorable  and  high  minded  men,  and  honest 
and  upright  citizens,  will  be  bound  to  say  to  it  cordially,  amen; 
and  they  will  do  it  with  a  vim,  for  between  a  fraud  at  cards,  and 
a  midnight  foray  upon  a  sheep-fold,  there  is  no  moral  distinction. 


59 

In  your  first  article,  you  attempted  to  prove  tliEit  a  man's  liberty 
to  bet  would  be  involved  and  restrained  to  some  extent,  if  he  had 
to  go  past  an  unlicensed  gaming  house  to  get  to  a  lawful  gaming 
house.  I  declined,  when  I  replied  to  you,  to  answer  such  flimsy 
sophistry,  such  sheer  halirernc — betisc.  To  have  treated  such 
balderdash  with  respect,  would  have  required  an  amount  of  hy- 
pocrisy to  which  1  could  not  conscientiously  stoop,  and  I  did 
hope  the  manner  in  which  I  was  constrained  to  treat  it,  would 
open  your  eyes,  and  you  would  certainly  see  its  trans[)arent  fal- 
lacy. But  no,  that  is  not  the  way  you  treat  your  little  mutes,  and 
so  you  take  another  tilt  at  the  "fullest  and  freest  fruition  of  the 
pet  passion  of  the  million,"  to  show  you  was  logically  right.  I 
never  supposed  that,  when  I  only  asked  that  the  people  might 
have  the  freest  and  fullest  fruition  of  a  game  wheii  they  got  to  it, 
that  you  or  anybody  else,  would  ever  imagine  that,  to  carry  out 
such  a  law,  the  game  must  be  taken  to  the  people.  And,  had 
you  detected  any  one  else  in  the  perpetration  of  such  a  tovr 
d^impuissa?ice,  you  would  have  unhesitatingly  branded  him  a 
^'Theban  Pig."     Boeotujn  in  cj^asso  jurares  acre  natum. 

You  certainly  have  less  inclination  for  discrimination  than  any 
law-giver  I  ever  had  the  misfortune  to  meet  before;  and  if  1  were 
to  gamble  at  all,  I  would  hazard  largely  that  you  cannot  tell  whe- 
ther, in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  the  boy  carries  the  horse  to  water, 
or  the  horse  carries  the  boy  to  water.  A  large  majority  of  gam- 
blers take  the  initiative  in  the  black  art  in  villages  and  small 
towns,  where  "tigers,"  when  they  grow  lean  and  ravenous,  prowl 
in  quest  of  game  no  bigger  than  a  cocksparrow.  The  novice 
begins  by  buying  and  betting  dime  checks;  gradually  the  pas- 
sion grows  apace,  and  sooner  or  later  he  is  lost,  pecuniarily  un- 
done. This  is  the  history  of  thousands  upon  thousands  of 
ruined  estates.  License  gambling,  and  put  the  license  up  at  a 
proper  figure,  and  no  man  can  afford  or  would  pretend  to  take 
out  license  in  a  village  or  small  town.  Youths  brought  up  then 
at  the  feet  of  a  village  Gamaliel  would  no  longer  be  beset  by  the 
fascinations  of  fashionable  itinerants,  seeking  to  seduce  and  de- 
stroy them  hard  by  the  altars  of  their  sanctuaries.  It  would 
prevent  millions  upon  millions  of  gray  hairs  from  descending 
with  sorrow  to  untimely  graves,  and  it  would  save  as  many  bit- 
ter, scalding  tears  from  being  shed  at  all,  that  aged  mothers, 
young  wives  and  orphan  children  may  otherwise  have  to  shed. 
You  ask  me  would  1  accept  a  conlrii)Ution  to  build  a  church  from 
a  gambler.  I  answer,  unhesitatingly,  that  I  would,  cheerfully. 
In  the  first  place,  it  would  take  that  much  from  his  capital,  and 
thereby  contribute  to  circumscribe  his  resources  for  mischief  In 
the  second  place  it  would  put  that  much  money  into  the  pockets 
of  the  poor  pious  members  of  that  church  who  would  otherwise 
have  to  pay  it  out  of  their  own  scanty  means.     In  the  third  place, 


60 

I  should  only  be  permitting  a  man  of  tlie  world  to  do  a  good  ac- 
tion, the  effect  of  which  upon  his  meditations,  might  perchance 
lead  to  his  regeneration;  whereas,  its  rejection  might  cost  him 
his  soul,  with  the  fear  of  which  1  would  not  Hke  to  have  my  con- 
science burthened.  In  the  fourth  place,  I  am  always  delighted 
when  I  see  churches  going  up,  under  any  and  all  circumstances; 
and  I  dare  say  if  a  gambler  were,  out  of  his  abtmdant  means,  to 
build  a  church  for  a  poor  community  himself,  he  would  be  very 
apt  to  command  more  of  the  confidence  and  esteem  of  the  con- 
gregation than  a  minister  of  the  gospel  who  would  refuse  to 
preach  to  them  in  it  because  they  might  not  be  able  to  pay  him 
the  salary  he  demanded,  or  appreciate  the  snow  flakes  of  reh- 
gion  he  mingled  in  his  sermons  with  hailstones  of  literature, 
lightnings  of  vanity  and  thunders  of  bombast.  Level  to  the 
earth  to-morrow  every  church  in  Richmond  gamblers  have  con- 
tributed to  build  or  sustain,  and  many  a  bright  Sabbath  morning 
would  come  and  go  before  the  familiar  voice  of  a  glad  church 
bell  would  be  heard  again  caUing  its  shepherd's  scattered  flock 
to  his  fold. 

A  revenue  is  necessary  to  support  the  government,  and  taxa- 
tion is  necessary  to  raise  a  revenue.  There-is  a  direct  and  indi- 
rect way  of  levying  taxes,  and  that  government  is  always  the 
most  perfect,  among  the  citizens  of  which  there  prevails  the  least 
discontent,  and  direct  taxation  always  produces  more  discontent, 
than  any  other  system.  The  money  which  is  paid  fir  a  license  is 
an  indirect  contribution  to  the  public  revenue.  I  say  that  it  is 
right  and  proper  that  this  revenue  should  be  levied  in  part  upon 
the  vices  of  the  land,  and  you  say  no,  let  the  private  virtues  of 
the  people  bear  all  of  the  public  burthens  of  the  country.  I  say, 
the  gambler  who  has  won  the  last  dollar  of  a  sot,  before  he  stag- 
gers into  his  grave,  ought  to  be  compelled,  out  of  his  play-made 
fortune,  to  take  oft'  the  widow  and  orphans  his  victim  may  leave 
with  a  small  estate  so  settled  upon  them  he  could  not  squander 
it,  a  part  of  "their  lade  o'care"  and  pay  a  part  of  their  taxes. 
But  you  say  no,  let  estates  of  widows  and  orphans  be  ground 
into  dust  under  the  iron  heel  of  taxation;  let  their  wails  of  dis- 
tress be  ever  so  piercing  and  let  their  tears  flow  ever  so  thick  and 
fast,  still  make  them  respond  to  the  law  and  pay  to  the  last  cop- 
per due  the  hungry  tax-gatherer,  but  let  the  gambler,  who  has 
in  his  coffers  the  money  that  should  be  in  theirs,  escape  with  a 
mere  (to  hiui)  nominal  tax.  He  is  rich  and  they  are  poor.  Yet 
you  say,  let  hini  pay  his  taxes  in  pennies  and  make  them  pay 
theirs  in  doubloons.  Such  humanity  and  justice  is  worthy  only 
of  the  superstition  that,  while  it  recoils  with  a  mock  horror  from 
a  liberal  donation  out  of  funds  fairly  won  and  freely  offered  to 
you  by  a  gambler  to  build  a  church,  teases  a  niggardly  merchant 
out  of  a  jpaltry  ■pitiafice,  which  he  grudgingly  gives  out  of  a 


61 

fund  he  has  told  lies  enough  to  accumulate  to  damn  a  thousand 
sonls.  The  above  anibrotvpe  fairly  presents  the  natural  and  le- 
gal results  of  your  and  views  mine. 

"  Look  on  this  picture  and  on  this." 

But  we  must  part.  I  have  already  implored  you  never  to  gam- 
ble. I  have  now  a  parting  prayer  to  address  to  you.  I  see  you 
are  young,  ardent,  impulsive — and  occasionally  read  your  Bible. 
Now  the  request  I  am  about  to  make  of  you  is  Jiever  do  you  at- 
tempt to 

"Gi'  the  Gospel  horn  a  blast." 

When  I  implored  you  never  to  gamble,  it  was  for  your  own  sake 
alone  I  importuned  you  then,  but  it  is  for  the  cause  of  religion, 
pure  and  undefiled,  I  am  pleading  with  you  now,  for  you  may 
rest  quietly  assured  that  il  it  could  survive  the  advocacy  of  your 
logic  and  the  contamination  of  your  worldly  vanity,  instead  of 
making  the  devil  hang  his  harp  upon  the  willow,  as  it  ought,  it 
would  only  provoke  him  to  redouble  his  exertions,  and  we  would 
have  ten  times  more  gamblers  and  infidels  than  we  ever  did. 
Farewell! 

Bcnti  voglio  don't  neglect  that  flood,  your  flood — but  that 
was,  formerly,  called  Noah's  flood — but  don't,  I  beseech  yon,  at- 
tempt to  take  a  man's  life  with  your  flood.  [That  flood  has  ta- 
ken lives  enough  already.]  Remember  the  fote  of  poor  lady 
Macbeth.  After  she  had  caused  Duncan  to  be  murdered  under 
her  own  roof,  in  his  bed,  the  las^t  words  that  ever  escaped  her 
addled  lips  were:  ''To  bed!  to  bed!  to  bed!"  Now,  if  you 
were  to  murder  Erskine  in  that  flood  of  yours,  you  would  be  cer- 
tain to  kick  the  bucket,  exclaiming:  "To  the  flood!  to  the  flood! 
to  the  flood!" 

ERSKINE. 


CAN  GAMBLING  BE  SUPPRESSED? 

To  the  Editor  of  the  Whig: 

Having  addrossed  you,  sir,  previously  on  the  subject  indicated 
at  the  head  of  this  article,  and  wishing  to  enlarge  on  some  of  the 
points  T  have  heretofore  presented,  so  vitally  imf)ortant  to  the 
community,  I  proceed  to  do  so,  as  briefly  as  the  nature  of  tho 
case  will  admit.  From  the  interest  lately  shown  in  this  matter, 
by  the  authorities  in  Richmond,  it  may  safely  be  presumed  that 
the  subject  is  not  without  a  hold  upon  the  mind  of  the  public 
generally,  and  that  afteiuioa  will  be  vouchsafed  to  proper  con- 
siderations in  regard  lo  it. 


6S 

One  proposal  is,  that  this  vice,  which  stamps  with  dishonor 
every  one  known  to  he  addicted  to  it,  shall  be  actuall}'-  made  a 
lawful  practice.  Houses  must  be  set  apart  for  this  purpose. 
Their  proprietors  must  be  taken  under  the  wing  of  the  law. 
They  must  be  made  to  stand  on  a  similar  honorable  footing  with 
the  respectable,  upright  merchants,  professional  men,  farmers, 
and  mechanics  of  the  Slate,  whose  interests  are  taken  care  of  by 
law,  as  the  moral  correctness  of  their  business  demands.  These 
men,  who  are  now  compelled  to  slink  in  and  out  of  Iheir  dens 
of  impurity,  forced  to  remain  on  the  outer  limits  of  society;  these 
marked  men,  who  would  not  now  feel  at  home  among  the  cor- 
rect gentlemen  of  the  land — these  men  whose  talk  is  of  "faros" 
and  "roulettes"  and  "tigers" — these  men  drenched  in  the 
blood  of  their  fellows — these  festering  saves  on  the  body  politic, 
whose  stench  is  in  the  nostrils  of  all  virtuous  and  refined  citi- 
zens— these  men  whose  very  dress  and  aspect  indicate  their  lost 
recklessness,  and  are  evident  tokens  of  perdition — such  members 
of  the  community  are  to  be  lifted  from  their  conscious  degrada- 
tion and  put  on  the  jDrecise,  lawful  level,  the  identical  legal  foot- 
ing, and,  therefore,  to  some  extent,  the  same  social  platform,  with 
the  high-minded  men  whose  business  and  persons  have,  in  all 
ages  of  the  world  been  held  in  high  esteem  and  deemed  worthy 
of  the  most  constant  and  honored  protection  of  a  nation's  laws. 
Is  there,  sir,  a  law-abiding,  proper  business  man  in  Richmond, 
or  elsewhere  in  Virginia,  who  does  not  repel  such  a  proposal  with 
indignation?  Would  not  the  sure  tendency  of  this  thing  be  to 
eradicate  the  vital  distinction  between  right  and  wrong,  between 
avocations  morally  proper,  and  those  which  are  intrinsically  and 
forever  vicious,  and  between  citizens  whose  lives  are  correct, 
and  persons  whose  every  step  is  marked  by  immorality?  What 
would  such  a  step  on  the  part  of  the  Legislature  be  but  simply 
an  opening- wedge  to  make  way  for  the  vilest  of  European  ideas, 
sentiments,  tastes  and  practices? 

I  said  in  a  late  communication  to  your  journal,  sir,  that  a  law 
licensing  gaming  houses,  would  be  burdened  with  the  disgrace 
of  having  been  originated  in  those  two  infidel  nations,  France 
and  Germany.  The  Ioav  moral  tone  of  those  people  is  of  itself 
enough  to  throw  an  odor  of  suspicion  around  any  of  their  laws 
bearing  upon  the  public  purity.  Their  repute  as  infidels,  in  their 
general  preferences  and  tendencies,  is  not  generally  disputed. 
The  national  infidelity  of  Prance,  in  the  days  of  the  revolution 
of  '92,  is  denied  by  no  one  acquainted  with  the  history  of  the 
period.  The  moral  venom  of  the  writings  of  Rosseau,  Voltaire 
and  others,  had  thoroughly  poisoned  the  minds  of  the  masses  in 
France,  rendering  them  ready  for  the  crimes  and  horrors  of  that 
bloodstained  era.  The  destruction  of  the  Church  and  Gospel  of 
Jesus  was  the  watchword  of  the  people.     The  convention  deco- 


rated  a  strumpet,  paraded  her  in  a  chariot  through  the  streets  of 
Paris,  as  the  Goddess  of  Reason,  and  installed  her  in  the  church 
of  Notre  Dame,  to  supercede  the  oracles  of  God,  and  as  Voltaire 
said  in  regard  to  Christ,  "fo  crush  the  wretch."     That  conven- 
tion brought  before  it  the  Archbishop  of  Paris,  with  other  rene- 
gade bishops  and  clergy,  including  a  protestant  nunister  named 
Julien,  compelled  them  to  strip  themselves  of  their  priestly  gar- 
ments, and  declare  that  they  rejected  Christianity  as  a  reliiiion. 
Infidelity  then  was  in  France  an  unblushing,  undoubted  thing, 
and  1  do  not  believe,  from  the  testimony  of  the  most  respectable 
witnesses,  that  the  mere  skepticism  of  that  country  has  materi- 
ally diminished  siuce  the  period  of  the  revolution.     Dr.  Nicholas 
Murrav,  (lately  deceased,)  an  eminent  Presbyterian  Minister  of 
New  .Tersey,  who  under  the  '■'■nom  de  plume''''  of  "Kirwan," 
gained  high  reputation  as  the  writer  of  several  popular  and  able 
works,  especially  his  letters  to  Chief  .Justice  Taney  ou  the  Ro- 
mish religion,  says  in  his  book  styled  ''Men  and  things  I  saw 
in  Europe,"  on  page  69,  ''France  has  no  religion  and  no  fixed 
principles."     This  is  the  testimony  of  this  sagacious  and  ob- 
serving man,  from  what  he  beheld  with  his  own  eyes,  and  heard 
with  his  own  ears.     A  nation  without  religion,  certainlv  cannot 
believe  in  the  Christian  religion,  and  as  a  belief  in  that  religion 
is  surely  a  "fixed  principle,"  a  people  without  "fixed  princi- 
ples" cannot  have  such  belief  in  the  religion  of  Jesus.     It  is 
true,  sir,  that  Romanists  occupy  high  positions  in  the  govern- 
ment of  France,  and  that  her  Head  is,  by  profession,  a  Romanist, 
as  are  also  many  of  her  l^egislators.     But  that  does  not  affect 
the  question.     Napoleon  the  First  was  a  Romanist  by  profession, 
but  he  also  imprisoned  the  Pope  v/hen  it  suited  his  purposes. 
David  Hume,  the   noted  infidel,  was  a  communicant  of   the 
Church  of  Fingland,  for  office  sake.     80  was  Collins,  and  the 
Earl  of  Shaftesbtu-y.     80  was  Rosseau,  first  a  Papist  and  then  a 
Protestant.     Voltaire  also  professed  a  belief  in  the  Popish  reli- 
gion and  built  a  church  at  his  own  expense,  at  the  very  time  he 
was  expressing  and  publishing  his  doubts  of  the  existence  of  a 
God,  and  declaring  tliat  the  world  was  now  seeing  the  twilight 
of  Christianity.     'Phe  fact  that  Romish  professors  are  in  the  high 
jilaces  in  France,  and  that  great  nnmbers  of  her  people  are  also 
surh  ])rofessors,  j)rovos  notliiiig.     The  case  was  the  same  in  the 
days  of"  the  reigu  ot'  terror,     'J'he  nation  has  undergone  no  ma- 
terial alteration,  and  as  they  made  iheir  Hishopsand  Clergy  deny 
the  faith  in  179.'^,  so  they  niindered   their  Archbishop  in  the 
streets  of  ]*aris  as  lately  as  IbilS.     Dr.  Murray,  on  page  80,  of 
the  work  previously  mentioned,  says  that  "the  French  are  mo- 
rally uneducated,"  are  '^otkristir  in  the  undertone  of  their  opi- 
nions." thru  "  Popery  is  an  ovorf^oat  to  j)nt  olf  or  on  as  suits  the 
iiour,"  and  "  the  ^a/w/MJa/j^  of  France  is  religion."    One  more 


64 

reference,  sir,  on  this  part  of  my  subject,  and  I  shall  pass  on. 
The  Right  Rev.  Alonzo  Potter,  as  distinguished  a  Bishop  as  ever 
sat  on  the  Episcopal  bench  in  the  old  United  States,  Avell  known 
to  the  literarv  men  of  the  country,  in  his  introduction  to  ''  Lec- 
tures on  tlie  "Evidences  of  Christianity,"  says,  at  page  45,  "  that 
a  large  portion  of  tlie  religious  unbelief  of  any  one  time  or  place, 
is  inherited  from  the  past.  This  is  the  case  with  the  French  in- 
fidehty  of  OUR  day,  which  is  but  a  sad  legacy  from  a  former  gene- 
ration— the  result,  for  the  most  part,  of  early  prejudices  and  asso- 
ciation?. AVhoever  travels  i'or  a  few  hours  with  a  Frenchman, 
who  represents  the  average  opinion  and  feeling  of  France,  will 
see  that  the  nation  at  large  have  hardly  heard  of  Christianity,  ex- 
cept as  a  superstition  which  merits  consideration  only  from  priests 
and  women."  Bishop  Potter  published  this  statement  in  1855, 
and  I  believe  he  simply  confirms  the  former  impressions  of 
the  mass  of  well-informed  people  of  the  land.  Yet,  the  peo- 
ple and  authorities  of  Virginia  have  been  lately  exhorted  to  tread 
in  the  path  of  these  people,  who,  in  the  language  of  Dr.  Mur- 
ray, on  page  SO  of  his  work,  "care  neither  for  God  or  man,  and 
fear  nothing  in  time  or  in  eternity."  Principles  like  those  of 
France  are  to  be  introduced  among  us;  yes,  into  our  very  laws. 
Gambling,  which  these  atheistical,  demoralized  French  people 
love  so  well  as  to  take  it  under  the  care  and  fostering  protection  of 
the  government  is  recommended  to  be  received  into  the  arms  of 
Virginia  law-ma!(ers,  and  the  moral  mercury  of  Virginia,  to  sink 
at  once  to  the  freezing  point,  as  it  is  in  godless  and  immoral 
France.  What  lover  of  this  young  country,  sir,  does  not  feel 
his  blood  to  stir,  and  his  very  heart-strings  tremble  at  so  nefa- 
rious a  proposal? 

I  said,  in  a  former  communication,  that  Germany,  where  garn- 
bhng  is  legalized,  is  also  as  infidel  a  country  as  any  nation, 
within  the  limits  of  Christendom,  could  be.  And  such  is  the 
case.  A  law  opening  gaming  houses  would  come  foul  with  the 
vapors  of  German  morals  and  German  infidelity.  What  reader 
of  the  literature  of  the  day  doubts  that  Germany  is  at  this  mo- 
ment the  source  and  fountain  of  a  large  share,  not  only  of  the 
infidelity  of  Europe,  but  of  the  world.  The  intellectual  leaders 
of  the  infidelity  of  the  Continent  and  of  England,  are  Germans. 
To  mention  no  others,  Straus,  the  Corypheus  of  modern  infi- 
delity, is  a  German.  The  infidels  of  all  the  civilized  world  have 
their  minds  impregnated  with  the  ideas  and  spirit  of  Straus  and 
his  German  coopcrators  and  sympathizers.  The  infidelity  of 
many  German  divines,  even,  is  proverbial  with  all  theological 
scholars  in  this  country,  and  throughout  Christendom.  The  ef- 
fect their  efforts  have  had,  and  the  results  of  the  exertions  of  in- 
fidels, outside  the  Church,  are  evident  in  the  morale  of  the  shoals 
of  infidel  Germans,  who  have  for  years  been  floating  to  the  shores 


65 

of  this  continent,  and  like  fetid  masses  of  putrid  locusts  which 
are  washed  up  on  the  Mediterranean  coasts,  spreading  pestilence 
and  death,  have  tended  so  powerfully  to  degenerate  and  corrupt 
Northern  society,  and  to  put  in  it,  especially  in  the  North-west, 
so  many  elements  of  disease  and  social  rottenness.  The  social- 
istic infidelity  of  the  Germans  of  the  North-western  States  of  the 
Old  Union,  is  about  as  well  known  as  any  fact  about  them. 
Their  newspapers  are  nearly  all  of  this  cast.  They  have  no 
►Sabbath,  no  Bible,  no  God.  The  blasphemous  rants  of  Carl 
Shurz,  in  the  political  canvass  of  1S60,  yet  rouse  the  horror  of 
the  retiecting  men  of  the  land,  and  serve  to  remind  the  people 
of  the  country,  that  the  nation  which  produced  him,  has  given 
birth  to  thousands  like  Carl  JShurz,  and  has  infidelity  enough 
within  its  limits  to  leaven  a  world,  if  it  were  not  for  a  superin- 
tending Providence,  to  prevent  so  dire  a  result.  Bishop  Potter, 
in  the  work  I  have  mentioned,  on  page  52,  quotes  a  declaration 
of  one  ol  the  most  prominent  ministers  in  Germany,  to  the  pre- 
cise effect  (if  the  statements  I  have  now  made.  He  represents 
Dr.  Wichern,  as  declaring  at  a  public  missionary  meeting,  in 
Germany,  that  the  friends  of  the  Bible  had  all  the  science,  art, 
and  literature  of  the  Empire  against  them.  The  Bishop  thinks 
this  an  exaggeration,  but  says,  at  the  same  time,  that  it  is  accu- 
rate to  an  extent  that  is  <' truly  appalling."  Other  evidence  of 
the  truth  of  my  averment  on  this  subject,  sir,  might  be  adduced, 
but  space  will  not  allow,  nor  do  I  prcsmne  it  to  be  necessary. 
The  fact  is  indubitably  so.  The  infidels  of  Germany  are  not 
few  in  number,  but  their  name  is  legion,  like  that  of  the  devils 
of  antiquity ,  and  their  influence  is  scarcely  less  pernicious.  Aye, 
sir,  if  we  had  not  been  informed  that  the  ancient  legion  of  lost 
spirits,  had  gone  into  the  herd  of  many  swine,  I  think  it  might 
have  been  sagely  conjectured  that  they  had  entered  into  the  my- 
riads of  German  free-thinkers  of  these  days;  for  scarcely  any- 
thing else  could  exjilain  their  multitudinous  rush  into  the  dark 
sea  of  infidelity.  These  stern  facts  will  hardly  be  controverted 
by  any  one  who  values  his  reputation  as  a  man  of  correct  gene- 
ral information,  and  yet  it  is  to  Germany,  that  men  in  our  midst 
would  have  us  go  for  morals  and  for  laws.  The  law  of  God-de- 
fying Gernjany,  on  the  subject  of  gambling  are  to  be  brought 
across  the  sea,  and  plarjted  in  the  infant  bosom  of  the  new-born 
republic.  A  practice,  which  a  majority  of  the  States  of  the  Con- 
federacy now  solemnly  declare  to  be  a  vice  of  no  common  base- 
ness, is  to  bo  stripped  of  that  black  robe,  by  formal,  legal  enact- 
ment, is  to  be  adorned  with  gannents  of  purity  and  whiteness, 
and  Virginia,  the  mother  of  statesmen  and  law-givers,  i.s  to  be 
the  first  to  pay  honor  to  the  long  neglected  virtue  of  tliis  social 
monster.  Virginia  is  acttially  to  take  the  lead  in  imitating  Ger- 
many; in  the  matter  of  legalizing  gambling.    By  way  of  (Uoiia- 


66 

ishing  thfi  vice,  we  are  to  enact,  in  our  land^  the  laws  of  a  coun- 
try, where  gaming  in  its  most  revolting  forms,  confessedly  and 
notoriously,  prevails  to  an  extent  unprecedented  in  any  other  na- 
tion under  heaven.  The  men,  sir,  who  desire  this  thing,  (and 
they  are  not  few)  should  retire  to  their  gambling  dens  in  redden- 
ing'shame,  and  confusion  of  face,  for  the  light  of  heaven  is  pol- 
luted by  shining  on  their  impure  countenances.  Every  person 
who  goes  much  into  the  world,  hears  gamblers  expressing  their 
wishes  that  the  practice  should  be  legalized,  but  when  such  pro- 
posals are  made  through  the  press,  the  scorn  of  an  indignant 
people  should  be  hurled  at  them,- and  the  authors  of  such  plans, 
whether  they  are  designing  men  or  ignorant  men,  should  be 
made  to  feel  the  scourge  of  the  public  wrath  in  all  its  bitterness. 
Let  public  opinion,  sir,  be  organized  and  concentrated  on  the 
subject  of  this  vice.  Public  sentiment  in  Anglo  Saxon  Chris- 
tendom has  put  an  end  to  female  gambling,  as  a  general  thing, 
and  it  is  confessed,  that  even  in  Germany,  where  gambling 
houses  are  licensed,  the  females  of  the  country,  as  we  have 
been  lately  told,  rarely  game;  that  gambling  among  women  is 
mostly  confined  to  females  from  England,  the  frequenters  of 
West  End  and  Grosvenor  Square,  who  receive  no  countenance 
at  home,  and  therefore  resort  to  numerous  spas  of  Germany, 
even,  can  prevent  female  gambling  or  extinguish  it  when  already 
existing,  (though,  perhaps  no  evidence  can  be  found  of  its  pre- 
valence there  as  a  common  evil)  if  publict  can  do  this  much 
against/ewa/e  gaming,  why  can  it  not  do  great  things  against 
gambling  among  w^e;^?  Let  this  opinion  take  on  its  keenest 
edge  in  this  thing,  let  fathers  and  mothers  warn  their  sons  as 
much  in  regard  to  this  vice,  as  they  do  in  reference  to  the  intoxi- 
cating cup.  Let  the  various  classes  of  professional  men  use 
their  respective  engines  of  power,  to  their  utmost  capacity,  against 
it.  Let  anathemas,  which  have  hitherto  slept,  awake  from  their 
slumbers  and  break  over  this  crime.  Let  them  issue  from  the 
bar  and  from  the  bench,  from  the  chair  of  the  professor,  from  the 
pulpit  of  the  preacher,  from  the  sanctum  of  the  editor,  as  a  great 
statesman  once  reconnnended,  let  them  come  from  the  marque 
of  the  commanding  general  on  the  field  of  war;  let  the  friends  of 
hw  and  the  common  virtue  unite  their  voices  and  compel  them- 
selves to  be  heard  everywhere,  on  a  matter  so  vitally  interesting 
to  all,  so  nearly  concerning  the  public  morality  and  happiness  of 
all.  Let  this  be  done  and  more  stringent  laws  be  arrayed  against 
this  immorality;  cause  them  to  be  carried  out  in  the  country  as 
well  as  in  the  city,  in  villages  as  well  as  in  the  larger  communi- 
ties, and  this  cankerous  excrescence  on  the  social  body  must  ne- 
cessarily diminish,  and  gamesters  and  their  abettors  shall  be 
hunted  from  among  men,  as  we  do  a  murderer,  an  adulterer,  or 
a  thief*    Let  every  gambler  have  on  his  brow  the  broad  black 


67 

seal  of  reprobation;  teach  the  youth  of  the  land  to  regard  such 
men  as  thieves  and  robbers,  and  common  nuisances,  and  tlien  a 
new  generation  of  men  shall,  in  time,  come  upon  the  social  stage, 
and  this  crime  sliall  be  reduced  to  as  low  an  ebb  as  human  laws 
and  general  opinion  can  bring  any  vice.  In  order  to  prevent 
Richmond's  becoming  as  New  Orleans  has  lately  been,  the  wri- 
thing victim  of  110  gambling  holes,  let  the  strongest  laws  be 
passed  by  a  legislature,  jealous  for  the  honor  and  welfare  of  the 
people,  make  the  punishment  both  severe  and  certain  ;  let  games- 
ters be  given  to  understand  that  they  at  least,  shall  not  dictate  to 
law-givers  as  to  whether  their  practice  shall  be  treated  as  a  mis- 
demeanor, rather  than  as  a  felony;  let  all  men  who  want  the  Go- 
vernment to  support  itself,  or  take  care  of  the  poor,  by  taxes  on 
gambhng,  be  reminded  of  what  Paul  says  of  those  who  would 
do  evil  that  good  may  come,  viz.  that  their  "  damnation  is  just." 
Teach  men  that  the  vice  of  gaming,  does  not  consist  in  cheating 
at  cards,  in  what  some  might  term  the  abuse  of  the  practice,  but 
that  the  thing  itself  is  an  abuse,  that  to  speak  of  the '  abuse  of 
gambling  is  like  descanting  on  the  abuse  of  drunkenness  or  of 
roguery,  that  the  act  itself  is  a  vice,  cheat  and  a  fraud,  that  the 
'^ integrity  of  gamblers"  is  a  contradiction  in  terms,  as  much  so 
as  to  talk  of  a  sober  drunkard  or  an  honest  thief;  rouse  private 
citizens,  to  show  this  evil  as  little  countenance  as  they  do  to  the 
reeling  sot,  or  the  branded  rogue;  let  them  teach  all  their  sons 
and  daughters  to  avoid  gamblers,  as  they  would  the  noxious  mi- 
asma of  a' pestilence;  bring  to  bear  on  this  crime  the  whole  moral 
enginery  of  public  law  and  public  opinion,  and  people  who  come 
after  us  shall  rejoice  in  the  removal  of  a  fearful  burden,  and  in- 
hale a  purer  moral  atmosphere  than  that  which  surrounds  the 
men  of  our  day,  and  our  land. 

AV.  JM. 
Buchanan,  Botetourt  Co.,  Va. 


APOLOGETIC. 

Fairs  sa7is  dire  has  ever  been  the  modest  aim  of  ^'Erskine." 
Taste,  properly  refined,  must  forever  eschew  all  manner  of  esta- 
la  ffc— espaciaWy  that  of  pedantry;  but  because  ''Erskine"  failed 
to  adduce  au  piedde  la  lettre,  the  testimony  Perseus  left  on  re- 
cord against  Amez-Ace,  ''W.  M."  in  his  rampant  ambition  to 
expose  and  deride  the  humble  poverty  of  ''  Erskine's"  erudition, 
and  to  'Miang  out  the  banners"  of  his  own  aliluent  5a?;oi>  ''on 
the  outward  walls" /jro  tempore,  forgets  the  terrific  boasts  of  im- 
placable hostility  to  gannng  with  which  he  has  of  late  been  cau- 
sing the  gambling  world  to  stand  aghast,  and  to  gratify  at  one 
and  the  same  time,  his  vanity  and  his  malice;  he  calls  to  the  wit- 


6» 

ness  stand,  not  only  the  immortal  poet  aforesaid,  when  his 
testimony  is  directly  against  him,  hut  also  that  evangelical  law- 
giver to  whose  inspired  pen  we  are  indebted  for  the  Pentateuch, 
when  the  testimony  he  gives,  under  ''  W.  M.'s"  own  construc- 
tion of  it,  locates  the  vice  of  gaming  within  a  squirrel's  jump  of 
the  flood.  '^  W.  M."  is  certainly  an  unfortunate  wight.  In 
some  awkward  form  or  other  he  seems  to  be  fatally  doomed  to 
figure  continually  in  comedie  larmoyante  {distressing  farces.) 
At  first  this  was  a  source  of  no  litde  amusement  to  "Erskine," 
but  it  is  so  no  longer.  Toward  "  W.  M."  "^Erskine"  cherishes 
no  vindictive  feeling.  Juvenal  educated  him  above  it  when  he 
said:  Miniiti  semper  et  i/ijinni  est  a?iimi  exigique  voluptas 
ultio.  f Revenge  is  always  the  pleasure  of  a  narrow,  diseased 
and  little  mind.)        So  did  our  own  poet  who  said: 

"  Revenge  we  find 
The  weakest  frailty  of  a  feeble  mind.'" 

And  as  the  rapidly  accumulating  misfortunes  of  f'  W.  M."  have 
reached  a  climax  in  this  controversy  where  a  magnanimous  com- 
misseration  must  swallow  up  everything  resembling  a  vindictive 
resentment,  '^Erskine"  has  generously  resolved  that  in  order  to 
afford  to  the  devoted  head  of  "  W.  M."  a  temporary  respite  from 
the  storm  of  quips,  gibes  and  hoots,  his  manifold  palpable  blun- 
ders have  called  down  in  fierce  torrents  upon  it,  he  will  ad  hoc 
make  an  effort  to  deserve  to  be  laughed  at  himself,  and  to  that 
end,  will  take  a  literary  escapade — spree,  go  on  a  regular  classi- 
cal ^'bender."     Be  not  alarmed  then  lector  benevole,  if 

"  Bernam  wood 
Do  come  to  Dunsinane." 

Or,  if  tothe^«a/e,of  poetical  and  classical  quotations,  metaphors 
and  allusions  "the  cry  is  still  they  come,"  and,  if  en  attendant 
the  idea  should  occur  to  you  that  "Erskine"  is  affected  with  a 
poco  di  matto  (slight  tinge  of  madness,)  you  will  perceive  if  you 
look  further,  avise  la  fin,  that  there  is  method  in  it.  "  W.  M.," 
it  is  apparent,  solemnly  believes  that  in  poetical  and  classical 
quotations  there  is  a  mysterious  power — a  power  before  which 
facts  and  their  logical  sequences  vanish,  as  Macbeth 's  witches 
did  into  "thin  air,"  and,  gentle  reader,  as  it  is  not  you,  but  "  W. 
M."  that  "Erskine"  is  alter,  and  there  is  but  one  way  to  fight 
the  devil  successiuUy,  to  wit,  with  fire,  you  must  draw  your 
cloak  around  you,  for  verily 

"  Poelica  surgit 

Tempestas.^'    (A  storm  of  potry  is  gathering.) 

CAN    GAMBLING    BE    SUPPRESSED? 

To  '^  W.  M.", — At  the  head  of  an  article  I  addressed,  on  the 
7th  of  December  last;  (1861;)  to  the  Editor  of  the  Whig;  1  pro- 


G9 

pounded  the  above  inten'ogatory.  In  that  article  I  assumed  de- 
lerenlially,  that  a  vnon  avis  the  total  suppression  of  gambling 
Avas  an  utter  impossibihty,  and  gave  some  of  the  facts  and  ra- 
tionale— expose  dc  motifs  (a  statement  of  reasons) ,  which  had  con- 
spired to  force  that  conclusion  upon  my  mind.  Whereupon  you 
affected  to  have  been  smitten  as  with  an  electrical  shock  from  a 
galvanic  battery,  of  horror,  and  snatchijig  up  your  "gray  goose 
quill,"  rushed  into  tjie  curriculum  to  pit  y(uirself  against  all 
comers,  who,  in  yourjingnst  presence,  should  dare  to  draw  their 
blades  in  defence  of  my  views.  The  partial  suppression  of  gam- 
bling, I  admitted  was  practicable,  and  suggested  the  outlines  of 
a  law,  which  would,  if  promptly  enacted  and  vigorously  en- 
forced, be  bound  to  produce  favorable  results  in  that  direction. 
You  joined  issue  with  mc  upon  the  opinion  I  gave,  the  facts  I 
stated,  and  the  feasibility  of  the  remedy  I  advocated.  A  con- 
troversy ensued,  in  which  you  have  advertised  too  woful  an 
amount  of  universal  ignorance  to  give  to  your  own  opi- 
nions any  other  character  than  that  of  will-o'-the-wisps,  my  facts 
you  failed  to  confront  with  facts,  and  the  only  remedy  you  sug- 
gested in  lieu  of  the  one  I  advocated,  was  an  old  effete  and 
exploded  theory  which  has  been  weighed  in  the  balance  and 
found  wanting.  Your  last  article  appeared  in  the  Whig  of  the 
14th  inst.,  (February,  1862,)  and  is  substantially  C'est  le  re- 
frain dc  la  ballade,  (the  old  story  over  again,)  crambe  bis  coda, 
3L\-i\eve  rechauff'age ;  and  as  in  it  there  is  nothing  new  that  is 
true,  or  true  that  is  new,  I  shall  take  leave  of  you  in  a  resume — 
recapitulation  of  some  of  the  facts  which  constitute  a  part  of  the 
history  of  our  discussion,  each  of  which,  or  at  least  each  of  the 
more  instaniiae  osicnsivac  of  which  I  shall  endeavor  to  demon- 
strate is  a  polemical  blunder,  not  for  the  idle  or  wanton  purpose 
o{  persiflage,  but  with  the  benevolent  hope  and  earnest  desir^ 
that  it  may  exercise  a  mollifying  influence  upon  that  ainabilis 
iiisania — amiable  infirmity  of  which  your  modesty  is  occasion- 
ally the  victim,  to  wit,  the  conceit,  that  in  your  pen  there  is  a  su- 
pernatural magic,  and  in  your  logic  an  irresistible  momentum. 
It  is  true  it  is  a  mere  mentis  gratissimiis  error,  (gratifying  men- 
tal delusion,)  and  it  may  wear  the  appearance  of  cmelty  to  seek 
to  rob  you  ol  it,  but  it  is  a  duty  I  owe  to  the  public.  You  have 
been  guilty  of  sundry  flagrant  violations  of  the  laws  of  good 
taste,  and  as  you  plume  yourself  upon  being  the  advocate  of  the 
rigid  enforcement  of  the  iron  letter  of  the  law,  you  must  remem- 
ber that  the  holy  evangelists  from  whom  you  quote  with  such  a 
voMVAfkMe  pleonas?n ,  warns  you  that  he  who  lives  by  the  sword 
must  die  by  the  sword.  Rouchfoucald  tells  us  "few  are  so  wise 
as  to  prefer  the  censure  which  would  be  useful  to  them  to  the 
flattery  which  betrays  them,"  and  if  I  should  not  receive  for  the 
enumeration  of  your  tiiaiseries,  with  which  I  shall  herein  furuish 


70 

yon,  the  gratitude  to  which  I  shall  be  entitled,  I  shall  neither  bo 
disappointed  or  surprised. 

*'  Now  to  the  instruction  of  an  liumble  friend, 
Who  would  himself  be  better  taught,  attend, 
Though  blind  jour  guide,  some  precepts  better  known, 
He  may  disclose  that  you  may  make  your  own." 

Imprimis  then  you  committed  a  prodigious  blunder  in  thrust- 
ing yourself  forward  to  provoke  this  contrggt^ersy.  The  question 
under  discussion  is  intrinsically  of  a  legalf|^pe.  Discussion  can 
have  but  two  legitimate  objects,  to  wit,  the  elimination  of  truth 
and  the  edification  of  mind.  To  you,  legal  science  is  a  sealed 
book. 

"There  needs  no  ghost,  my  lord,  to  come  from  the  grave 
To  tell  us  this." 

In  the  misuse  you  have  already  made  of  legal  terms  you 
have  converted  an  incorporeal  hereditament  into  lands  and  tene- 
ments, and  pray,  sir,  how  can  a  planet  shrouded  in  a  Cimmerian 
opacity  shed  light.  Ex  nihilo  nihil  Jit  (nothing  can  come  from 
nothing.)  The  science  of  the  law  is  as  deep  as  the  sea,  limit- 
less as  the  universe,  and  "eternal  as  the  stars."  It  requires  the 
"lucubrations  of  twenty  years"  to  reach  the  point  of  a  formal 
acquaintance  with  it;  familiarity  costs  the  immolation  of  a  life- 
time, yet  you  have  had  the  cool  audacity  to  present  yourself  be- 
fore the  world  on  the  soil  that  produced  the  God-like  genius  and 
holds  the  sacred  ashes  of  the  illustrious  Chief  Justice  Marshall, 
to  edify  mankind  upon  the  merits  of  a  question  essentially  legal 
before  you  are  able  to  discriminate  the  terms  which  describe  a  per- 
sonal chattel,  from  those  technically  representing  a  landed  estate, 
which  to  some  extent  may  account  for  the  quizical  mauvais  pas 
into  which  you  pitched  headlong  when  you  attempted  to  work 
up  a  landed  estate  into  that  immarcessihle  illustration  of  yours. 
You  have  evidently  devoted  your  past  life  to  some  other  calling 
than  that  of  the  law  upon  which  benignly  fortunate  circum- 
stance those  lucky  litigants  who  might  have  been  yotir  luckless 
clients,  are  justly  entitled  to  a  hearty  Qongratulation,  and,  I  re- 
spectfully suggest  that  your  own  proper  calling  is  as  much  as  you 
are  equal  to.  Propertius  hit  the  head  of  the  nail  when" he  said, 
Omnia  no7i pariter  reruni  sunt  omnibus  apta,  (all  things  are  not 
alike  for  all  men  lit,)  which  has  been  happily  versified  thus  :  . 

"  One  science  only  can  one  genius  fit, 
So  vast  is  art  so  narrow  human  wit." 

Toward  the  conclusion  of  your  last  article  you  propose  to 
rouse  the  pulpit  against  this  license  law,  and  nov/  sir,  allow  me 
to  suggest  to  you  that  therein  you  committed  another  blunder. 
It  is  the  business  of  the  pulpit  to  expound  the  written  laws  of 


n 

God.  With  the  hustings  and  the  merits  of  die  questions  can- 
vassed there,  it  can  properly  have  nothing  to  do.  It  was  the 
pragmatism  of  the  pharisaical  cant — whiners  of  the  New  Eng- 
land pulpit  that  attempted  to  dove-tail  the  political  question  of 
slavery  into  theology,  that  has  placed  a  million  of  men  face  to 
face  in  arms  against  each  other  on  tented  fields  and  embattled 
plains.  Against  gambling  it  is  legitimate  and  proper  for  minis- 
ters of  the  gospelto  preach.  But  neither  with  this  law  or  that 
upon  one  subject  or  another,  is  it  proper  or  prudent  for  ministers 
to  meddle  in  any  shape  or  form,  and  the  congregation  and  com- 
munity that  will  tolerate  it,  will  soon  find  the  parsons  whom  they 
thus  indulge,  making  stump  speeches  and  scribbling  in  the  news- 
papers, and  if  there  is  one  curse  that  is  more  to  be  dreaded  and 
deplored  than  another  by  the  church  it  is  one  of  these  demago- 
gical parsons  whose  passion  for  s])lurging  cannot  be  circumscribed 
by  the  opportunities  for  display  afforded  by  the  pulpit,  but  who, 
to  employ  scriptural  language,  must  go  a  whoring  after  the  ap- 
plause of  the  busting,  and  the  celebrity  of  lUteraieur  in  the  press. 

Your  third  mistake  occurred  in  that  ''wild  goose  chase"  you 
went  on,  after  the  imaginary  virtues  of  thht  low  down  herd  of 
canaille — meiidici  niimi  balatroncs  (beggars,  buffoons  and  scoun- 
drels) known  to  history  as  tlie  Antediluvians.  I  had  simply  iu- 
snuiated  that  they  were  no  better  than  they  ought  to  have  been 
c'cst  a  dire  that  they  were  for  all  the  world,  just  like  other  people, 
and  it  was  for  you  to  have  exclaimed  justement  vous  avcz  rencon- 
tre, (right,  you  have  hit  (he  nail  on  the  head,)  and  to  have  worked 
up  the  vraieemblance  of  my  specific  charges,  beautifully  into  the 
provocation  of  the  flood.  But  you  did  not  seem  to  thmk  so, 
and  thereupon  sprung  dehors  the  record  a  collateral  and  immaterial 
issue,  to  support  which,  you  made  a  long  and  weary  pilgrimage 
rtood  wards,  only  avoir  V alter  pour  le  vcnir  (to  have  your  going 
for  your  coming),  and  merit  the  rebuke  contained  in  Martial's 
apothegm,  to  wit,  stultus  labor  est  inejjtiarwm  (silly  is  the  labor 
bestowed  on  trifles.) 

The  world  was  created  4004  years  before  the  birth  of  Christ 
and  was  2348  years  old  when  the  fiood  occurred.  Now,  sir, 
were  you  on  the  witness  stand  and  sworn  would  you  swear  that 
you  do  believe  that  for  234S  years  there  was  no^amblingon  earth. 
Nobody  believes  you  would. 

I  suppose  you  thought  (fuo:  c  lovgiaquo  mas;is  placcnt'Cihc 
further  fetched  the  more  things  please,)  and  whether  the  fll^a- 
telles  you  brought  home  witli  you  would  or  would  not  answer 
any  other  purpose,  they  wouiaj.l)e  bound  to  prove. that  you  had 
made  at  least  one  trij)  to  T'orinth,  and  was  a  travelled  gentleman 
and  hoNio  midtaruni  liicraruin,  (a  man  of  great  learning.)  Be 
that  as  it  may  the  ''sports"  if  they  are  gci/t  libcra/c  musi  and 
sans  double  do  feel  eternally  grateful  to  you  for  the  zeal  and  per- 


72 

tinacity  with  which  you  have  struggled  to  estabHsha  reasonable 
doubt  that  their  avocation  constituted  any  portion  of  that  long 
catalogue  of  flagitious  vices  and  crimes  that  kindled  the  wrath  of 
Jehovali,  opei.ed  the  windows  of  Heaven,  and  broke  up  the  foun- 
tains of  the  mighty  deep.  You  vehemently  denied  that  Barsa- 
bas  and  Matthias  gambled  for  the  Apostleship,  and  to  illustrate 
the  innocence  of  that  simple  little  game  of  hazard,  to  the  arbitra- 
trament  of  which  they,  through  their  friends  appealed,  you  got 
up  that  unique  and  sui  genei'is  landed  estate  illustration  of  yours, 
about  which,  however,  I  never  have  been  able  to  coax  or  tanta- 
lize you  to  say  one  word  since.  Each  of  these  blunders  might 
be  properly  designated  double  blunders,  but  to  economize  time,, 
ink  and  paper,  I  will  simply  label  them  in  the  order  they  have 
been  stated,  blunders  No.  1,  No.  2,  No.  3  and  No.  4.  1  never 
pretended  that  any  names  to  which  1  had  referred  had  given  dig- 
nity or  innocence  to  gaming.  You  intimated  that  I  did,  which 
is  blunder  No.  5.  You  asseried,  in  round,  blunt  terms,  that  ^' pub- 
lic opinion  has  put  an  end  to  female  gaynbling  for  inoney,''^  (I 
quote  ipsissima  ve?-ba)  which  is  blunder  No.  6.  Subsequently, 
you  had  the  hardihood  to  claim  that  your  allusion  was  only  to 
the  suppression  of  female  gambling  as  ''a  general  thing"  and  as 
'"'•'a  vice"  and  confined  strictly  to  the  territorial  jurisdiction  over 
which  the  Addison  school  of  civilization  prevailed,  but  that  was 
a  mere  Qnutato  elenchi  and  is  a  construction  of  which  your 
plain  and  direct  language  is  utterly  insusceptible,  and  then, 
when  I  proved  that  the  females  who  still  gamble  in  Europe, 
speak  Addison's  language  and  belong  to  his  school  of  civiliza- 
tion, you  condescended  to  make  allusions  to  them  the  mauvaiston 
of  which  is  well  calculated  to  excite  speculations  upon  the  charac- 
ter of  your  past  female  associations,  or  the  more  probable  insuscep- 
tibility of  your  nature  to  the  gentle  and  beneficent  influences  of 
the  sex,  from  which  your  vanity  might  find  it  no  very  easy  task 
to  derive  anything  that  could  be  ex  facile  mistaken  for  solid  so- 
latium, and  this,  sir,  must  be  scored  against  you  as  blunder  No. 
7.  You  then  facetiously  ask,  where  was  murder,  robbery,  &.C., 
«fcc.,  ever  put  down,  thereby  intimating  that  because  those  crimes 
have  not  ceased,  that  they  are  therefore,  as  gambling  is,  indi- 
rectly tolerated,  which  is  blunder  No.  8.  You  defined  gambling 
to  be  the  acquisition  of  something  for  nothing,  whereas  it  con- 
sists in  risking  one  thing  for  another  thing  upon  a  contingency , 
which  is  your  9th  blunder.  You  denied  that  gambling  was  a 
pet  passion  of  the  million,  but  neglected  to  mention  the  name  of 
any  otiicr  pastime  which  you  could  venture  to  assert  was  the 
one-tenth  part  as  popular,  which  is  blunder  No.  10.  Yon  then 
innocently  recited  a  brief  relation  historiquc  of  your  experience 
in  the  communities  you  had  visited  in  the  Old  Dominion,  which 
brought  up  to  the  surface  of  my  memory — ''  caused  to  pass  be- 


73 

fore  my  mental  eye,"  an  odd  old  Fish  I  once  knew  '^' Alas,  poor 
Yorick"  nobody  knows  him  now — oven  the  places  that  knew 
him  once,  will  know  him  never  more.  He  has  gone  to  that 
bourne  from  whence  not  even  a  plausible  rumor  has  ever  yet  re- 
turned. His  name  was  Michael  Spivy,  and  he  was  generally 
called  ''Uncle  JMike,"  and  Uncle  Mike  had  a  way  of  his  own  of 
always  having  his  own  way,  more  sico.  I  cannot  truthfully  say 
that  the  ''flashes  of  his  merriment  (a  la  Yorick)  were  wont  to 
set  the  table  in  a  roar,"  but  J  do  remember  well  that  he  was  wont 
to  roar  himself  when  the  table  Avas  not  set  at  the  usual  time.  He 
was  born  in  a  sequestered,  rural  ravine  known  as  Possum  Holler, 
in  it  he  was  reared  up,  and  until  he  had  seen  forty  winters  at 
home  he  never  had  seen  anything,  elsewhere.  Yet  he  was  some- 
what of  a  crassa  mincrva,  and  rose  in  process  of  time  to  be  quite 
a  hahadoor  in  Possum  Holler.  His  ipse  dixit  there  passed  for  a 
quasi  sort  of  law,  and  when  the  wants  of  the  Holler  finally  ex- 
hausted the  remedial  expedients  of  Uncle  Mike's  stuck  of  politi- 
cal economy — his  people  gathered  around  him  and  representing 
to  him  the  vast  advantages  that  might  inure  to  Possum  Holler, 
and  to  his  own  fan:ie,  if  he  would  only  go  out  into  the  world 
and  occasionally  look  around  and  about  him,  with  a  thouglitlul, 
enquiring  and  observing  eye,  they  urged  upon  him  to  go,  and 
he  went,  not  with  his  fingers  in  his  mouth,  bless  you,  but  with 
his  eyes  and  nostrils  wide  open.  Inter  alia,  he  was  atfected 
with  a  mono  nmniaon  the  subject  of  universal  reformation.  He 
used  to  say  that  once  on  a  tiiue  he  had  a  revelation  from  on  high, 
to  the  effect  that  he  was  born  to  be  a  Reformer,  not  on  as  small 
a  scale  as  Luther  was,  but  an  Universal  Reformer,  and  with  the 
afflatus  of  this  vision  in  his  soul  whenever  he  met  with  a  custom 
or  a  habit  that  did  not  come  square  up  to  the  standard  of  Possum 
Holler,  he  swore  it  was  not  right,  and  whenever  he  heard  of  any- 
thing of  which  he  had  never  heard  in  Possum  Holler,  he  swore 
it  was  not  so — could  not  and  ought  not  to  be  so.  Hoc  a  te  non 
viultutn  ahludit  imago,  (this  picture  bears  no  slight  resemblance 
to  you)  lor  it  is  plain  to  be  seen  that  you  want  to  rule  the  world 
and  regulate  its  social  institutions  by  the  Botetourt  moral  lex 
loci,  and  seem  to  be  astounded  that  anything  that  does  not 
happen  daily  there  possibly  can  happen  at  all  elsewhere.  So 
henceforth  you  must  excuse  me  if  1  call  you  Uncle  Mike,  and 
allude  to  good  old  Botetourt  (on  your  account  only)  as  Possum 
Holler.  iNow,  sir,  when  1  spoke  of  the  "  million"  I  was  talking  not 
about  Possum  Holler,  but  the  world  at  large.  My  allusion  was  to 
the  myriads  of  human  insects,  the  buzz  of  whom  it  is  not  rational 
to  presume  that  the  denizens  of  the  Hollerever  heard,  and  your  at- 
tempt to  make  the  mountain  of  the  world  go  to  the  Mahomet  of 
Possom  Holler,  is  blunder  No.  11.  You  charge  me  with  going 
off  half-cocked,  and  recommit  to  my  more  special  examination 


74 

one  of  my  own  arguments,  under  your  edaircissement.  This 
was  a  specimen  oi  friendly  familiar  itij,  the  propinquity  of  which 
to  your  subsequent  well  intended  alkision  to  my  paternal  respon- 
sibiUties  is  patent  upon  profert — recta  fronte,  all  of  which  have 
in  them  the  genuine  tinkle  of  S^ossum  Holler,  and  outside  of 
that  celestial  Empire  must  run  imminent  risk  of  being  christened, 
lor  the  want  of  a  more  euphonius  "term,"  impertinence,  and 
amounts  to  a  brace  of  blunders,  but  which  I  will  consolidate  and 
simply  claim  is  blunder  No.  12.  I  assumed  that  tlie  rigid  en- 
forcement of  a  law  licensingand  regulating  gambling  would  abo- 
lish it  entirely  in  villages,  and  coniine  it  to  a  few  houses  in  the 
larger  cities.  To  this  you  replied  that  the  most  depraved  could 
club  together  and  pay  the  tax,  forgetting  ex  facie  that  the  law 
suggested  required  a  heavy  bond  to  be  given  to  protect  the  public 
against  both  frauds  and  insolvency,  and  which  only  men  of  cha- 
racter coidd  give,  and  this  is  blunder  No.  13. 

You  stated  that  a  mere  garland  of  leaves  was  the  only  prize 
for  which  they  contended  in  the  Olympian,  Isthmean  and  Py- 
thian games.  Tacitus  and  Heroditus  and  the  more  modern  his- 
torians, Ottley,  Rutt,  Pocock  and  Talfourd,  all  say  that  the  prize 
awarded  the  victor  was  yVe^i^e/i^/y  money;  which  is  blunder  No. 
14.  You  said  I  had  plead  the  antiquity  of  gambling  in  vindica- 
tion of  it,  whereas  I  never  filed  any  plea  whatever  in  vindication 
of  gambling;  which  is  blunder  No.  15.  Moreover,  I  never  heard 
its  vindication  attempted  by  any  one,  a  coeur  ouvert.  You  say 
I  represented  you  as  bringing  forward  your  idea  about  a  '■^  re- 
striction upon  men's  liberty"  as  an  argument  against  my  plan, 
whereas  such  a  representation  I  never  made;  which  is  blunder 
No.  16.  Your  mind  seems  to  be  perpetually  enveloped  in  ne- 
bulae. You  remind  one  of  a  ship  at  sea  in  the  fog  without  a 
needle  or  an  alarm  bell,  and  you  seem  to  say  everything  you  do 
say  a  tort  et  a  travers  (at  random.)  Axio?nata,  you  have  none, 
save  one,  and  that  is,  to  never  lose  a  good  opportunity  to  blun- 
der. About  matters  of  which  you  know  the  least  you  say  the 
most,  especially  when  any  ''=  damnation"  that  is  ^^just,"  as  you 
take  it,  is  to  be  done,  wherein  you  remind  one  of  a  certain  batch 
of  critics,  of  whom  (Jicero  spoke  when  he  said' dan inajit  quod 
non  inielligunt  {they  condemn  what  they  do  not  understand.) 
Yet  you  become  indignant  if  any  one  presumes  to  suggest  that 
you  may  per  possibility  be  mistaken.  Certainly  you  never  could 
have  heard  of  the  old  French  aphorism,  grande  deraisqn  de pre- 
tendre  toujours  avoir  raison.  (It  shows  a  remarkable  want  of 
reason  to  be  fancying  one's  self  only  always  in  the  right.) 

You  set  out  in  this  controversy  to  make  it  a  logical  tourna- 
ment. Logic  was  the  burden  of  the  song  you  came  charging 
into  the  champ  clos  singing,  and  I  expected  to  see  the  stars  of 
Dr.  Thornwell,  Daniel  Webster  and  Lord  Bacon  all  batting  their 


twinkles  in  a  sombre  eclipse  under  the  gorgeous  blaze  of  ratio- 
cination with  which  the  horizon  of  Possum  Holler  was  to  be 
lit  up;  but  lo!  it  aiiit  so,  and  the  candidate  for  logical  laurels 
from  Possum  Holler  has  bolted  from  the  broad,  smooth  and  open 
highway  of  induction  to  bushwhack  it  amons^  the  brambles  and. 
briers  of  opprobrious  epithets.     No  doubt  Dr.  Thornwell  feels 
easier,  and  the  good  angels  that  watch  over  the  stars  of  Webster 
and  Bacon's  fame  have,  I  dare  say,  waved  their  plumes  in  con- 
gratulation to  each  other,  that  in  their  proper  orbits,  to  employ 
the  7iovissiwa  verba  of  the  God-like  Daniel,  they  ^' still  live." 
When,  however,  you  put  aside  the  Damascus  blade  of  logic  and 
commenced  throwing  the  brickbats  of  Newgate  (for  I  know  not 
by  what  other  name  to  call  epithets)  you  told  the  world  that 
short  sword  exercise  was  not  much  in  vogue  in  Possum  Holler; 
that  you  did  not  know  much  aboutcouching  lances  astride  of  fiery 
steeds,  but  that  if  they  would  permit  you  to  dismount  from  your 
high  mettled  Pegassus  and  chunk  the  gamblers  with  billingsgate, 
that  you  could  and  would  show  the  world,  or,  at  least,  that  por- 
tion of  it  who  are  resting  under  the  coimnunis  error  that  mots 
rf'  argot — slang  is  peculiar  to  fish  markets,  how  little  they  know 
of  the  extent  to  which  the  liberty  of  speech  is  indulged  and  en- 
joyed  in  Possum  Holler;  and  therein  j'ou  committed  blunder 
No.  17.    And  when  you  suppose  that  you  can  enjoin  gambling 
with  mephytic  gaze,  or  demolish  or  reform  gamblers  with  tirades 
of  obloquy,  reproach  and  denunciation,  you  only  betray  how 
superficially  you  have  read  that  exhaustless  volume  of  riddles, 
entitled  "human  nature,"  and  to  correct  which  I  refer  you  to 
the  history  of  one  Bill  Sykes,  as  written  by  Dickens  in  his 
charming  little  romance,  of  which  Oliver  Twist  is  the  hero. 
Bill  was  an  outlaw  and  had  provoked  the  public  to  a  point  whereat 
they  were  not  to  be  restrained  or  controlled,  so  they  rose  against 
him  en  masse,  and  run  him  up  a  tree,  and  so  graphic  and  thrill- 
ing is  the  picture  that  Dickens  gives  us  of  the  tortures  and  ago- 
nies under  which  Bill  writhes,  while  the  infuriated  mob,  greedy 
and  thirsting  for  his  blood,  are  howling  like  so  many  ferocious 
wolves  about  to  seize  their  prey,  that  as  a  worker  in  the  moral 
vinyard,  he  breaks  down,  for  the  shudder  of  sympathy  which 
he  causes  to  involuntarily  shock  our  sensibilities  fi>r  the  awful 
sufferings  and  impending  doom  of  this  abandoned  wretch,  an- 
nounces to  us  that  we  have  forgotten  the  crime  to  co.nmiserate 
the  criminal,  and,  in  attempting  to  make  us  approve  his  fate,  he 
forces  us  to  wish  he  could  escape  it;  and  you  committed  precisely 
the  same  blunder— (and  it  is  No.  IS),  when  you  opened  the  bat- 
teries of  your  abuse,  and  poured  into  the  ranks  of  the  gamblers 
such  a  merciless  broad-side  of  molten  villification.     There  are  to 
be  found  in  the  city  of  Richmond,  gamblers  capable  of /c;)^//•iO^ 
kme  Ic  plus  pur ,  (the  purest  and  most  disinterested  patriotism.) 


70 

A  gambler  was  recently  indicted  in  Richmond,  and  put  upon  his 
trial,  for  keeping  a  gambling  house.  He  summoned  to  the  wit- 
ness stand  Coniederate  Brigadier  Generals  and  Confederate  Se- 
nators, and  by  them  he  proved  the  rendition  of  servir.es  to  the 
Confederate  States,  Avhich  in  value  to  the  country  were  above  all 
pri^e.  Yet  he  asked  no  renumeration,  and  received  none,  not- 
withstsnding  he  had  incurred  a  heavy  expenditure  of  his  private 
fundS;  and  imperilled  his  liberty  and  his  life.  It  was  proven  that 
it  was  upon  the  information  he  procured,  that  the  movements  of 
our  troops  were  controlled  on  the  18th  and  21st  of  July  last  (at 
Bull  Run  and  Manassas.)  It  was  proven,  moreover,  that  he  had 
expended  dollars  by  the  thousand  to  arm  and  equip  soldiers  by 
the  regiment.  He  was  acquitted,  and  I  heard  a  member  of  the 
church  say,  who  was  on  the  jury,  that  under  the  high  character 
he  established  before  that  jury  for  probity,  patriotism  and  useful- 
ness, they  could  not  have  brought  witnesses  enough  into  that 
Court  House  to  have  convicted  him.  True,  it  may  be,  that  he 
did  once  preside  over  one  of  those  fashionable  Main  street  ''hells," 
but  if  he  did,  it  seems  that  when  he  was  there  it  was  not  with  the 
clatter  of  clicking  checks  his  thoughts  were  occupied,  but  while 
others,  who  were  there  to  win  his  money,  if  they  could,  were 
standing  with  baled  breath,  over  the  turn  of  a  card,  he  was  pon- 
dering upon  the  best  way  to  invest  whatever  it  might  win  for 
him,  to  contribute  the  most  comfort  to  our  camps,  and  advance 
the  cause  of  ourconmion  country.  He  gambled  nonsibi  sed pa- 
triae, (not  for  himself  but  for  his  country.)  And,  sir,  when  the 
hoof  of  the  invader  first  threatened  the  green  fields  of  your  be- 
loved Virginia,  who  was  it  that  was  the  very  first  to  rush  be- 
tween your  defenceless  bosom  and  Yankee  bullets  and  bayonets. 
Captains  Arthur  Conner,  James  Nilligan,  John  Barclay,  Mange 
and  Hawes.  Th^se  gentlemen  spent  over  twenty  thousand  dol- 
lars to  (expedite  their  precipitation  into  the  field,  and  there  they 
have  been  ever  since,  and  1  heard  an  officer  of  high  rank  and 
astute  perception,  say  but  the  other  day  that  these  captains  whom 
I  have  named  above,  were  worth,  to  the  Confederate  army,  ten 
thousand  times  over  their  weight  in  gold.  One  of  them  has 
sim.e  been  made  a  major,  and  others  of  them  have  been  fre- 
quently paid  the  highest  comphments  their  rank  could  receive, 
in  the  posts  of  duty  to  which  they  have  been  assigned  when  oc- 
casions seem  to  be  at  hand  that  were  to  try  men's  souls.  Now, 
sir,  what  do  you  suppose  is  their  calling — every  one  of  them  be- 
,long  to  that  proscribed  class  over  which  you  of  late  have  been 
wailing  so  bitterly,  and  gnashing  your  teeth  so  savagely,  and, 
sir,  when  rabiJo  ore  you  apply  to  such  men  such  epithets  as 
"thief,"  ''robber,  and  "murderer"  your  boutade  becomes /e- 
lum  imbclle  sine  ictu,  (a  feeble  dart  thrown  without  effect,)  and 
you  put  the  language  of  Horace  in  the  mouth  of  everybody,  to 


h 


1 


wit:  Quodcunque  ostendis mihi  sic  incredulus  odi,  (whatever  you 
show  me  in  such  a  way  as  to  outrage  common  sense,  I  view  M'ith 
ieeUngs  of  incredulity  and  disgust.)  The  pubhc  are  bound  to 
know  that  the  oppn^brious  terms  in  which  you  deal,  does  not  con- 
tain the  truth,  and  the  popular  sympathy  that  such  virulent  vi- 
tuperation will  arouse,  will  lose  sight  of  the  crime  to  shelter  the 
culprit.  In  Possum  Holler,  1  dare  say  it  might  work  well,  but 
among  the  outside  barbarians,  no  higher  appreciation  of  slander 
obtain^  will  enable  us  on  this  side  of  that  "  wall"  to  despise  that 
unmanly  vice,  and  if  you  persist  in  attempting  to  sow  broad-cast 
over  the  land  diese  Possum  Holler  morals  of  yours,  you  are  des- 
tined not  only  to  hear  breaking  upon  your  startled  ear 

"The  laughter  of  triumph  and  the  jeers  of  the  world," 

but  you  will  finally  precipitate  all  Possum  Hollerdom  into  en 
onauvaise — eternal  disrepute.  You  ask  could  anything  be  tuore 
obvious,  than  the  proposition,  that  the  severer  the  punishment, 
the  greater  the  probability  that  men  will  be  deterred  from  the  com- 
mission of  the  unlawful  act?"  Why,  sir,  if  you  will  make  the 
penalty  for  gambling  death,  your  special  joro^c^es,  (the  lowest 
class  of  gamblers,)  would  deal  fliro  with  impunity  en  plein  jour 
in  the  Market  House,  or  at  the  Court  House  door,  when  your 
grand  jury  are  in  session. 

That  is  a  wise  legal  maxim  of  which  I  reminded  you  in  my 
last  letter,  to  wit — "The  wisdom  of  a  law  consists  not  in  the  se- 
verity but  the  certainty  of  punishment."  It  originated  in  that 
enlarged  and  comprehensive  spirit  of  philanthropy  to  which  we 
are  indebted  (ov su niniuni  jus summainjvria  and  also  for  jusswni- 
iniun  saepe sunirna  est  malitia,  legal  maxims  which  rule  the  adju- 
dications of  criminal  tribunals  throughout  Christendom,  and  fur- 
nish conclusive  proof,  that  the  proclivities  ot  the  law  under  the  gui- 
dance of  human  judges,  are  setting,  with  no  ordinary  impetus, 
in  the  direction  of  clemency,  but  you,  I  perceive,  are  predisposed 
to  rebuke  and  repudiate  this  sign  of  the  times,  but,  sir,  it  is  no 
sickly  sentimentalism  against  which  you  are  arraigning  yourself, 
but  a  wholesome,  salutary  and  benign  innovation  upon  the  cruel 
barbarisms  of  the  feudal  ages,  and  has  conmianded  the  respect 
and  controlled  the  conduct  of  our  wisest  judges  and  most  austere 
executives. 

Over  forty  years  ago,  gambling  was  made  a  felony  in  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia,  and  during  the  presidency  of  General  Jackson, 
one  Jacob  Dixon  was  convicted  and  sentenced  to  the  Peniten- 
tiary for  gambling,  whereupon  old  Hickory  decided  that  the  pe- 
nalty was  disproportionate  to  the  oflence,  and  immediately  sent 
him  a  pardon.  For  about  a  quarter  of  a  century  thereafter,  that 
law  was  violated  every  day  in  Washington  City,  with  impunity, 
until  William  Marcus  was  convicted  under  it  during  the  presi- 


dency  of  James  Buchanan,  when  old  Buck,  taking  the  same 
view  cf  it  old  Hickory  did,  in  Dixon's  case,  disposed  of  the  case 
of  Marcus  in  the  same  manner.  Humanity  is  one  of  the  ruling 
instincts  of  our  race,  and  that  pious  minstrel  woke  celestial  mu- 
sic when  he  swept  the  cords  of  the  human  heart  with  the  follow- 
ing simple  words: 

"  Teach  me  to  feel  anolher's  woe, 

And  hide  the  fault  I  see, 
That  mercy  I  to  others  shotc, 

That  mercy  show  to  me," 

Man's  nature  is  eminently  emotional. 

"Compassion  proper  to  mankind  appears, 
Which  nature  witnessed  when  she  gave  us  tears." 

And  in  that  solemn,  sublime  and  beautiful  prayer  which  fell 
from  the  lips  of  our  Saviour,  we  are  instructed  to  say  to  our 
Heavenly  Father,  ^^ forgive  us  our  trespasses  as  loe  forgive  those 
who  tresjjass  against  us,''  and  the  old  Latin  poet  tells  us: 

LicAiit,  semperque  licebit 
Parcere  personis,  dicere  de  vitiis. 

(It  ever  has  been  lawful  and  ever  will  be  to  spare  the  person 
but  to  censure  the  vice.)  You  referred  me  to  the  sermons  and 
conversations  of  our  Saviour,  and  I  find  that  he  loved  the  crimi- 
nal when  he  abhorred  the  crime.  Yet  you  seem  to  be  as  rabid 
as  a  copper-head  in  dog  days^  against  all  persons  occupying  an 
equivocal  position  in  society.  And  why!  Hath  not  gamblers 
eyes,  hath  not  gamblers  "  hands,  organs,  dimensions,  sense,  af- 
fections, passifMis?  fed  with  the  same  food,  hurt  by  the  same 
weapon,  healed  by  the  same  means,  warmed  and  cooled  by  the 
same  winter  and  sun)mer,as  "deacons"  are.  If  you  prick  them 
do  they  not  bleed,  if  you  tickle  them  do  they  not  laugh,  If  you  - 
poison  them  do  they  not  die."  To  you  it  evidently  never  oc- 
curs that  in  them  there  can  linger  a  redeeming  quality.  Upon 
5'-our  frozen  and  obdurate  heart  the  example  and  the  injunctions 
of  the  world's  Saviour  are  utterly  and  forever  lost.  When  a 
poor,  fallen  and  friendless  woman  was  taken  flagranti  delicto, 
and  dragged  before  him  ior  judgment,  he  pronounced  a  sentence 
which  sent  her  manly  prosecutors  sneaking,  like  whipt  spaniels, 
out  of  his  presence.  To  her  he  mildly  said,  "Go  and  sin  no 
more."  And,  if  you  Avill  turn  back  into  the  Old  Testament  and 
read  the  history  of  Josluia's  expedition  against  .Tericho,you  will 
find  that  when  the  gates  and  walls  of  that  city  toppled  into  ruins 
under  the  inspired  blasts  of  his  ram's  horns,amidst  all  the  v/reck 
and  desolation  of  that  hour,  the  domicil  of  Rahab  the  harlot, 
stood  a  monument  of  divine  mercy;  and  pray,  sir,  why?  Sim- 
ply because  she  had  sheltered  two  of  Joshua's  spies  and  assisted 
them  to  elude  pursuit.     Yet  when  gamblers  render  services  to 


1$ 

the  Confederate  States  of  ten  thousand  fold  greater  value  than 
were  the  services  of  Rahab  to  Joshua,  but  tor  which  an  all-wise, 
supremely  good  and  sternly  just  God,  threw  over  her  mansion 
and  lier  person  the  mantle  of  his  precious  mercy,  you  denounce 
them  through  tfie  public  press  as  "  thieves"  and  "  robbers"  and 
"murderers."  From  the  frequency  and  facility  with  which  you 
dealt  in  Scriptural  quotations,  I  did,  atone  time,  flatter  you  wilii 
the  suspicion  that  you  was  most  prohal)!y  a  deaon;  but  I  do  ar- 
dently hope  and  trust,  lor  the  sake  of  the  Christian  religion  and 
the  general  welfare  of  society,  that  in  this  vague  surmise  1  was 
entirely  mistaken.  For,  sir,  let  it  once  get  bruited  abroad  that  W. 
M.  is  a  deacon,  and  that  deacon  VV.  M.  hatidles  so  flippantly  and 
expertly,  such  savage  expletives  as  "thief"  "robber"  and"  mur- 
derer," and  what  else  can  we  reasonable  expect,  but  that  all  the 
beardless  boys  in  the  country,  will  straightway  be  found  dipping 
into  expletives  too,  and  tliat  when  arraigned  for  it,  they  will  point 
to  your  example  as  high  anth(U"ity  f)r  its  correctness  and  pro- 
priety. What  could  you  hav^e  been  thinking  about — oh  deacon, 
deacon,  (if  you  area  deacon)  to  set  before  the  iiiipre>;sible  youth 
of  our  land  such  a  "nefarious"  example,  lietween  harsh  epithets 
and  mild  oaths  there  is  scarcely  a  colorable  distinction.  You' 
pass  from  one  to  the  other  imperceptibly.  T«)  say  the  least  of  it 
from  epithets  to  oaths  is  but  one  step,  from  oaths  to  whisky  but 
one,  and  but  one  from  whisky  to  cards,  and  \vhen  a  boy  has 
reached  cards,  deacon  don't  you  know  he  is  hellwards  bound, 
and  is  as  surely  doomed  to  drop  into  the  eternal  pit  when  he  dies, 
as  ripe  fruit  is  to  fall  when  it  is  shaken  by  an  autumnal  blast. 
Oh!  \V.  M.,  VV.  M.!  deacon  W.  M.! !  what  an  awful  curse  is  this 
with  which  yon,  by  the  dint  of  an  evil  example,  are  threaten- 
ing the  hopes  of  our  youth  and  the  happniess  of  our  homes. 
Don't  you  remember  Horace  tells  us  7ii/.  afjcif.  exemplu7n  litem, 
quod  lite  rcsolvit,  (that  example  does  nothing  which  in  removing 
one  differently  introduces  another).  Yet  in  the  lace  of  this  trite 
axiom,  you,  in  an  inellectual  attempt  to  preveiU  what  you  miscon- 
ceive to  be  a  prospective  evil,  sow  broad-cast  over  the  land  the 
dragon's  teeth  of  profanity,  from  which  are  destined  to  spring 
up  a  crop  of  armed  foes  to  every  virtue  that  can  contribute  to 
promote  the  social  elevation  and  national  prosperity  of  our  young 
('Onfederacy.  And  moreover,  tliere  seems  to  be  an  awful  loose- 
ness about  your  morals  generally.  You  say,  when  in  trade  one 
man  swindles  another,  "'  it  is  onlij  a  mere  case  of  fraud. ' '  That 
is  true,  and  when  one  man  knocks  another  down  and  rifles  his 
pockets,  it  is  otd>/  a  mere  case  of  robbery,  and  when  one  man  with 
malice  prepense  blows  another  man's  branis  out,  it  is  only  a  mere 
case  of  murder,  si\id  when  you  denounce  as  "thieves,"  "rob- 
bers" and  "nuirderers"  men  who  havo  left  their  homes  to  come 
here  to  deleud  your  home,  but  hud  never  comniilted  thefl,  rob- 


80  ' 

bery  or  murder,  it  was  only  a  inere  case  of  contemptible  slander 
and  mean  ingratitude.  What  may  not  be  the  effect  of  this  cri- 
minal levity  of  yours  about  '^a  mere  case  of  fraud,'' ^  in  callings 
that  you  extol  to  the  skies,  and  ^^ applaud  to  the  very  echo." 
Will  not  millions  plunge  headlong  right  into  the  deepest  depths 
of  swindling  and  cheating,  and  exclaim,  if  they  are  caught,  ''in 
the  language  of  deacon  W.  M.  it  is  only  a  mere  case  of  fraud. ^^ 

.Vimia  illaec  licentia, 

Profeclo  evadet  in  aliquod  magnum  malum. 

(Such  excessive  licentiousness  will  most  certainly  terminate 
in  some  great  mischief.)  Heavens  and  earth!  just  think  of  what 
a  spectacle  we  shall  soon  present.  With  cheating,  swindling, 
and  profane  swearing,  inculcated  by  the  example  and  connivance 
of  our  prominent  deacons,  our  fame  as  cheats,  swindlers  and  pro- 
fane swearers  will  soon  ''rise  out  of  obscurity  into  world  wide 
notoriety,"  and  not  only  will  mere  cases  of  fraud  and  blasphemy 
be  "mightily  increased,  but  they  being  the  parent  of  many  other 
crimes,  every  sluice  of  iniquity  will  fly  open,  and  every  vice 
rush  unfettered  and  uncontrolled  through  the  land,"  and  then 
indeed,  verily  may  we  expect  that  we  certainly  will  '^attract  the 
wrathful  curse  of  the  Lord  Jehovah.  And  if  you  designed  such 
a  result  and  rejoice  at  it,  well  may  you  exclaim  in  the  language 
of  the  epitaph  of  Sir  Christopher  Wrenn — Si  mo7iumentum  re- 
quiris  circumspice — (if  you  would  behold  my  monument  look 
around  you.) 

"  Wiil  all  greut  Neptune's  ocean  wash  this  blood   . 
Clean  from  thy  hand?"    And, 

"Can  such  things  be, 
And  overcome  us  like  a  summer  cloud 
Without  our  special  wonder," 

Deprendi  miseruni  est,  says  Horace  and  I  dare  say  you  are 
realizing  the  truth  of  his  words,  and  I  dare  say,  moreover,  that 
the  vulture,  remorse,  is  tearing  with  crimson  beak  and  bloody 
talons,  the  quivering  liver  of  yoitr  guilty  conscience.  I  some- 
times think,  when  I  remember  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as 
''sinning  ignorantly,"  therefore,  innocently,  that  you  would 
have  made  a  good  member  of  Absalom's  band  as  it  would  seem, 
that  to  this  controversy  you  "went  forth  and  knewiwt  anything^'''' 
and  I  am  warmly  inclined  to  acquit  you  of  all  complicity  with 
cheats,  swindlers  and  profane  swearers,  but  then  again  when  I 
reflect  that  there  is  but  one  calling  that  is  either  willing  to,  or  sus- 
ceptible of,  being  made  honest,  and  you  oppose  making  it  so,  and 
that  while  I  never  met  in  my  life  with  a  man  depraved  enough 
to  advocate  gambling;  you  speak  of  plausibihties  "so  often  heard 
among  the  advocates  of  tliis  practice,"  and  of  their  often  ex- 
pressed "wishes"  clearly  indicating  that  you  are  the  habitue  of 


81 

the  same  resorts  they  are,  and  mingle  with  them,  my  mind  re- 
curs at  once  to  the  devouring  passion  with  which  you  seem  to 
hone  after  ahnsive  epithets,  and  ''  as  a  mere  case  of  fraud''''  then 
passes  ''belore  my  mental  eye,"  I  find  that  however  wiHing  the 
spirit  of  my  faith  may  be  to  stand  by  your  shortcomings,  the  flesh 
is  too  weak,  and  I  abandon  the  rickety  fort  of  your  character  as  in- 
defensible, or  iiiiothcr  words,  bound  to  cost  more  to  defend  than 
it  would  be  worth,  especially  after  it  would  be  riddled,  as  riddled 
it  could  be,  by  the  cannon-balls  and  bomb-shells  of  the  enemy. 
Pray,  sir,  what  is  the  raito  justijica  of  all  his  venom  and  ve- 
hemence .'  Where  do  you  find  an  authority  that  sustains  the 
eliicacy  of  such  amarulent  invective!  Certainly  not  in  that 
beautiful  maxim  attributed  to  Seneca,  to  wit:  gratia  gratiam 
parit  (kindness  begets  kindness.)  Nor  in  that  equally  felicitous 
French  proverb,  to  wit:  Donees  pai'olesii'  ecorchent  pas  la  languc 
(soft  words  scald  not  the  tongue.)  You  referred  me  to  the  ser- 
mons and  conversations  of  our  fSaviour.  Allow  me  to  recipro- 
cate that  attention,  and  at  the  same  time  inquire  of  you,  when 
he  was  among  men,  "Agoing  about  doing  good,"  relbrming  sin- 
ners and  rebuking  sin,  on  what  occasion  did  he  stoop  to  the  em- 
ployment of  harsh  and  insulting  epithets?  I  should  suppose  it 
would  have  only  taken  a  modicum  of  common  sense  to  have 
informed  you  that  you  could  not  aflVont  a  man  and  then  reason 
with  him;  and  when  you  call  gamblers  by  hard  names  you 
literally  emasculate  the  moral  influence  your  exhortations  might 
otherwise  have  among  them.  Cicero  tells  us  conciliat  animos 
coinitas  af'abilitasque  sermonis  (courtesy  conciliates  the  feehngs,) 
whereas  lis  litem  generat  (strife  begets  strife,)  for,  says  the 
proverb,  contumclia?n  si  dices  audies  (if  you  utter  affronting 
speeches  you  will  have  to  hear  them,)  which  has  been  more  for- 
cibly put  by  another  author  thus:  cuteiii  gerit  laceratam  canis 
morda.c  (a  snapping  dog  wears  a  torn  skin.)  !So  you  must  learn 
how  to  behave  yourself  pleasantly  or  keep  out  of  the  press;  bri- 
dle either  your  vanity  or  your  temper.  On  the  threshold  of  this 
discussion  you  appointed  yourself  arbiter  elegantiarum,  and 
pertly  ''  cocked  yourself  up  to  read  me  a  lecture  upon  "refined" 
"ways"  and  "polite"  "terms."  What  would  our  readers  think 
of  )^ou  now  if  you  were  to  repeat  the  complaints  you  made  then, 
quis  tulcrit  Gracchos  dc  scditionc  qucrentcs  (who  could  endure 
the  Gracchi  complaining  of  sedition.)  Would  they  not  laugh 
to  hear  that  Clodius  accusat  madios  (Clodius  accuses  the  adul- 
terers.) There  is  a  broad  difl'erence  between  writing  conspirito 
and  the  intemperate  indulgence  in  acrimonious  adjectives  and 
criminal  charges  to  which  you  condescended,  (at  least  it  would 
have  been  a  condescension  for  any  one  else.^  How  did  you 
ever  manage  to  work  yourself  up  into  such  a  tempestuous/M;we? 
Some  of  your  sentences  remind  one  of  volcanic  eruptions  of  the 
li 


8S 

lavHR  of  gall  and  wormwood,  which,  as  it  flows  down  from  the 
crater  of  your  pen,  seems  to  burn  into  the  face  of  the  green  earth 
over  which  it  rolls,  '^ thief,"  <' robber"  and  "murderer."  But 
I  find  1  have  been  neglecting  for  some  time  to  number  your 
blunders  as  I  go  ''upon  my  way."  Many  of  them,  it  is  true, 
arc  too  small  game  to  shoot  a  figure  at.  They  came  without  a 
mission  and  departed  without  a  sign,  and  I  shal.1  not  haunt  you 
MMth  their  ghosts.  Moreover,  I  am  afraid  if  I  were  to  give  you 
a  faithful  picture  of  the  grotesque  deformity  of  your  mental  or- 
ganism you  might  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  the  Grecian  Acco, 
who,  being  both  vain  and  homely,  upon  beholding  her  face,  for 
the  first  time,  ni  a  mirror,  went  raving  mad.  I  shall,  therefore, 
content  myself  with  calling  your  attention  to  a  few  more,  say,  a 
dozen,  among  which  your  bigoted  intolerance,  as  exhibited  in 
the  fanatical  fury  with  which  you  assail  my  proposition  to  license 
gambling,  occupies  a  prominent  position.  After  denouncing  it 
as  a  ''nefarious  proposal,"  which  outlandish  term  has  the  scent 
of  a  fish  market  all  over  it,  you  then  go  on  to  say,  in  your  charac- 
teristic vein,  "when  such  proposals  are  made  through  the  press 
the  scorn  of  an  indignant  peo})le  should  be  hurled  at  the  authors 
of  such  plans,  and  whether  they  are  designing  men  or  ignorant 
men,  should  be  made  to  feel  the  scourge  of  the  public  wrath  in 
all  its  bitterness.  Che  Spczie.  Now,  sir,  this  kind  of  blustering 
and  bravado  may  sound  very  big  up  in  Possum  Hoher,  and  it 
may  be  that  you  have  got  Possum  Hollerdom  so  literally  under 
your  thumb,  that  after  such  an  explosion  from  your  "potent, 
grave  and  reverend",  deaconship,  it  would  be  cxrano  risking  all 
a  man's  life  is  worth  to  ever  attempt  to  agitate  the  subject  in  that 
vicinage  again,  and  the  inference  is  a  fair  one,  that  such  is  the 
fact,  lor  if  you  had  not  been  encouraged  in  petty  despotism  at 
home  you  never  had  had  to  be  checked  tor  your  impudence  and 
])resumption  abroad.  I  dare  say  Possum  Holler  is  ruled  with  a 
rod  of  iron;  that  you  issue  your  Icttre  dc  cachet  and  premmdrc 
on  your  own  motion,  and  that  when  your  fiat  is  not  proinptlij 
obeyed  you  quote  poetrij  to  your  subordinates  after  this  style: 

,"  Vou  scruple,  silly  lout!  'tis  my  comnmiul, 
My  will — let  lliat,  sir,  for  a  reason  stand." 

IStill,  nevertheless,  it  is  otherwise,  «//'o  .sv^Z*  5o/e,  and  even  here, 
in  Richmond,  the  freedom  of  opinion,  the  hberty  of  the  press, 
the  right  of  free  speech  and  free  discussion  still  have  scattered 
around  and  about  par  ci  par  la  a  few  bold  and  stubborn  friends, 
who  will  be  very  apt  to  be  found,  as  of  yore,  turning  their 
thoughts  at  large, 

"Without  a  pass  from  Rhoderick  Dliu," 

(of  Possum  Holler. )  You  may  rain,  if  you  choose,  the  brimstone 
and  fire  of  your  ire  on  Possum  Holler  as  long  as  its  inhabitants  are 


88 

meek  and  sheepish  enough  to  tamely  submit  to  the  piltiless  peh- 
ings  of  the  sulphuric  storm,  hut  whenever  you  attempt  to  launch 
the  thunder  bolts  of  your  proscription  beyond  the  frontiers  of 
that  Holler  you  will  soon  be  taught,  sir,  of  what  brittle  and 
harmless  material  it  is  they  are  constructed;  for  the  only  echo 
they  will  or  can  arouse  fmiong  a  people  struggling  for  indepen- 
dence will  be  withering  "^curses  of  hate"  and  red  hot  'blisses 
of  scorn."  Among  other  instances  of  your  high  handed  pre- 
sumption your  attempting  to  usurp  the  judginont  seat  and  pre- 
side at  the  final  trial  of  poor  >Sheridan,and  scud  his  soul  to  eter- 
nal perdition,  is  the  most  blasphemous.  All  this  you  did,  when 
you  said  that  he  had  died  "^God  forsaken."  How  do  you  know 
that,  my  rantankerous  deacon  ?  Did  not  a  thief  on  the  scaflbld  re- 
ceive a  passport  in  the  very  article  of  death  to  Paradise,  and  how 
do  you  know  but  that  poor  Richard  Brinsley  met  with  a  similar 
demonstration  of  Divine  mercy?  If  you  are  a  theosophist  and 
have  had  an  interview  with  the  recording  angel  and  do  speak 
by  the  card,  I  suppose  it  must  be  so;  otherwise  I  think  it  just 
as  probable  that  Sheridan's  soul  is  in  Abraham's  bosom  as  that 
the  soul  of  a  ripping  and  cavorting  deacon  ever  can  get  there. 

You  say,  '^Indeed  I  can  inform  '^Erskine"  of  what  he  evi- 
dentl}?-  does  not  know,  which  is,  that  there  were  games  of  c/iancn 
certainli/  about  the  Christian  era,  and  that  money  was  put  up  as 
now  by  the  gamesters."  Ah  deacon,  you  are  laboring  under  the 
charm  of  a  strange  whim,  it  you  suppose  that  I  either  have  told 
or  ever  will  tell  ijou,  all  that  T  know,  1  knew  that  the  game  of 
morn  was  played  4000  years  ago,  during  the  reign  of  Osertasens 
in  Egypt,  and  that  the  ancient  Egyptian  King  Remesis  often 
played  at  koUabismos  with  the  ladies  of  his  own  household,  and 
that  thousands  of  years  ago  dice  were  found  at  Thebes  that  evi- 
dently belonged  to  the  Pharonic  age;  all  this  I  learned  from  an 
attentive  perusal  of  the  writings  of  Sir  J.  Gardner  Wilkinson. 
The  dice  that  were  used  in  Greece  were  invented  by  I'alamedes 
about  1200  years  belbre  the  Christian  era.  He  also  invented  the 
game  of  backgammon.  7'hen  in  mythological  history,  I  knew 
it  was  recorded,  that  Mercury  played  at  dice  with  the  moon  and 
won  ffom  her  the  five  days  of  the  epact  which  were-added  to 
complete  the  36.5  days  of  the  year.  Thimble-riggers,  I  knew, 
were  spoken  of  in  the  earliest  history  we  have  of  Egypt,  and 
Gibbon,  I  well  remembered,  had  told  us  that  Didius  .lulianus 
played  at  dice  until  a  very  late  hour,  on  the  night  of  the  day  his 
elevation  to  the  Imperial  purple  was  ratified  by  the  Senate;  and 
finally,  I  had  read  and  not  forgotten  the  history  of  a  wager  be- 
tween one  of  the  judges  of  Israel  and  his  people,  as  it  is  recorded 
in  the  12th  and  13th  verses  of  the  Hth  chapter  of  Judges.  Here 
it  i.s — '<  And  Samson  said  unto  them,  1  Avill  now  put  ibrth  a  rid- 
dle unto  yoU;  if  you  can  certainly  declare  it  me  within  the  seven 


84 

(lays  of  the  feast,  and  find  it  out,  then  I  will  give  yon  thirty 
sheets  and  thirty  change  of  garments.  But  if  ye  caniint  declare 
itj  then  shall  ye  give  me  thirty  sheets  and  thirty  change  of  gar- 
ments, and  they  said  nnto  him  put  forth  t/ii/  riddle.^^  Was  a  bet 
ever  stated  plainer  or  taken  quicker.  Tiiink  you,  deacon,  you 
can  put  it  through  a  landed  estate  illustration.  Yon  have  a  way 
of  your  own  of  saying  to  personal  chattels  '^presto  change," 
and  lo,  the  personalty  Hashes  out  of  existence  and  a  "really" 
ilashes  in.  Perhaps  the  same  necromantic  power  that  produces 
such  meruni  results,  might,  under  a  slight  strain,  make  those 
garments  Samson  bet  fit  like  a  duck's  foot  in  the  mud,  that  illustra- 
tion of  yours  which  of  all  others  is  your  chef  (Vmin^re,  The 
truth  is  gambling  ^^is  no  chicken."  It  counts  the  years  of  its 
age  by  thousands.  Humanum  est  errare  or  as  the  poet  says  : 
"To  err  is  human,"  and  the  habit  of  gambling,  1  grant  you, 
was  conceived  in  error,  brought  forth  in  error,  and  has  in  error 
grown  gray;  but,  unfortunately,  when  error  once  becoiues  inter- 
woven with  the  customs  and  habits  of  a  people,  it  passes  from 
generation  to  generation,  and  when  it  grows  old,  it  claims  and 
seems  to  command  the  reverence  due  to  age.  "Woe  betide  the 
hand,"  (said  William  Wirt,)  that  rashly  presumes  to  pluck  the 
wizzard  beard  of  hoary  error,  for  from  lisping  infancy  to  tottering 
age  the  curses,  jeers  and  reproaches  of  all  classes  and  conditions 
of  society  shall  rest  upon  it."  Burns  tells  us  that  error  some- 
limes  seems  to  have  its  origin  in  Heaven — 

"  I  saw  thy  pulses  madd  'ning  play, 
WiM  send  the  pleasures  devious  way, 
Misled  by  fancy's  meteor  ray, 

By  passion  driv'n, 
But  yet  the  light  that  led  astray 

Was  light  from  Heaven." 

Neither  wisdom  or  w^ealth  seems  to  furnish  any  protection 
against  error.  Solomon,  when  he  was  the  wisest  and  the  wealth- 
iest man  on  earth,  abjured  the  faith  to  which  he  was  indebted  for 
everything,  to  run  after  Ash toreth  the  goddess  of  the  Zidonians, 
and  Milcqni,  the  abomination  of  the  Ammonites,  and  from  that 
day  to  this,  all  manner  of  little  Solomons  have  been  running 
after  all  manner  of  little  Ashtoreths,  and  committing  all  manner 
of  little  hoary  errors.  When  I  mentioned  that  the  roulette-table 
at  which  females  gambled  at  Saratoga,  \vas  kept  by  one  Gridley, 
you  made  that  fact  the  sport  of  your  wicked  waggery,  and  I  sup- 
pose for  having  mentioned  herein  the  names  of  the  various  cap- 
tains commanding  companies  under  our  flag  who  belong  to  the 
sporting  fraternity,  and  when  I  mentioned,  a  few  pages  back,  the 
names  of  Dixon  and  Marcus,  1  made  another  bid  for  your  face- 
tiae, and  that  I  will  be  certain  to  get  another  one  of  those  terri- 
ble bearded  arrows  of  yours  shot  so  deep  into  my  grief-torn  and 


85 

mangled  bosom,  that  no  manner  of  tugging  and  straining  can 
ever  get  it  out  again.  The  only  tangible  basis  for  controversy  is 
an  issue — the  affirmative  and  negative  of  which  must  be  assailed 
or  sustained  by  argument,  the  predicate  of  which  must  be  data. 
Ad  Slim  mam  facts  are  the  only  available  ammunition  with  which 
you  can  work  logical  batteries.  Rhetoric  will  do  for  the  powder 
(_to  make  a  noise),  but  the  balls  must  be  facts.  When  a  writer 
or  speaker  in  the  progress  of  a  discussion  mentions  dates  and 
the  names  of  persons  and  places,  it  is  bound  to  commend  him  to 
the  confidence  of  the  reader.  Whereas,  if  in  the  face  of  the  old 
legal  maxim  dnhoi  vcrsatur  in  geiicralihus  (fraud  lurks  in  loose 
generalities,)  he  presumed  to  deal  only  in  vague  and  loose  gene- 
ralities, if  it  is  occasionally  hinted  that  he  might  be  mistaken  in 
this  or  that  statement,  he  can  have  nobody  to  blame  but  himself. 
In  Possum  Holler,  however,  yovr  generalities  outrank  all  other 
men's  specifics.  You  will  not  find  it  so  elsewhere,  and  if  you 
do  not  want  to  have  the  vis  matrix  that  controls  you,  gravely 
suspected,  be  a  little  more  respectful  for  the  future  in  your  de- 
portment toward  specifics.  You  say  in  one  of  your  last  com- 
munications :  ''I  said  in  a  former  communication,  that  Germany, 
where  gambling  is  legalized,  is  also  as  infidel  a  country  as  any 
nation,  within  the  limits  of  Christendom,  could  be."  Now,  sir, 
that  is  not  what  you  said  at  first.  Here  is  your  language  :  *'  We 
must  legalize  gambling,  as  the  French  and  Germans,  with  their 
notoriously  low  moral  tone,  have  done.  We  must  legalize  it,  a§ 
these  two  infidel  nations  of  Europe  have  done,  for  they  are,  per- 
haps, the  only  two  distinctively  infidel  countries  on  that  conti- 
nent." In  this  propensity  you  have  for  changing  your  language 
and  positions,  you  remind  me  of  the  Norwegian  bear,  who,  when 
her  cubs  are  whelped  deformed,  licks  them  into  shape,  I  dare 
say  if  this  controversy  were  to  last  twelve  months  before  it  closed, 
you  would  testify  yourself  that  there  were  gamblers  who  were  not 
only  human  beings,  but  noble  fellows,  and  deny  stoutly  that  you 
had  ever  intended  to  call  them  thieves,  robbers  and  murderers. 
Among  the  numerous  collateral  issues  which  the  light  shed  by 
your  erratic  pen  seems  to  hatch,  as  it  is  said  the  sun  hatches, 
in  certain  latitudes,  gnats  and  musqnitoes,  in  certain  seasons,  the 
infidelity  of  France  and  Germany  was  among  the  first  that  came 
out  of  its  shell.  I  proved  that  they  were  Catholic  nations,  and 
peremptorily  denied  that  skepticism  had  ever  poisoned  the  high 
and  learned  sources  from  whence  their  legal  fountains  flowed, 
and  to  this  prominent  and  important  fact  I  pointedly  and  repeat- 
edly attracted  your  special  attention,  and  called  upon  you  loud 
and  long  for  your  proof,  that  an  isolated  skeptic  had  anything  to 
do  with  the  enactment  or  enforcement  of  the  law  under  discus- 
sion. This  music  you  never  did  have  the  nerve  to  face,  and  yet 
you  have  the  face — (<'  still  hafping  on  my  daughter,")  to  perti- 


86 

naciously  insist  that  the  infidels  of  France  and  Germany  are  re- 
sponsible for-  a  law,  with  the  enactment  or  enforcement  of  which 
I  have  again  and  again  challenged  you  to  show  any  infidel  great 
or  small,  ever  had  or  now  has  anything  whatever  to  do.  Surely, 
you  must  have  a  sneaking  notion  of  reenacting  the  fable  of  the 
wolf  and  the  lamb,  and  proving  the  truth  of  the  maxim,  homo 
homini  lupus.  En  passant,  I  have  discovered,  I  suspect,  Cest 
le  mot  de  Venigme,  (the  key  to  the  mystery.)  It  is  tlte  fact  that 
the  lambs  you  are  hunting  down  are  Catholic  lambs,  and  you, 
sir,  beyond  all  doubt,  are  a  Protestant  wolf,  inde  irae,  for  I  dare 
say  that  it  is,  when  the  revocation  of  the  edict  of  Nantes  and 
the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew  pass  before  that  "mental 
eye"  of  yoiu's,  that  you  set  up  such  a  doleful  and  unearthly  howl 
in  pursuit  of  these  lambs,  one  would  naturally  suppose  from  the 
zeal  and  certitude  with  which  you,  without  equivocation  or  quaU- 
fication,  assert  the  infidelity  of  France  and  Germany,  that  you 
were  not  only  thoroughly  familiar  with  their  history,  but  that 
you  had  been  for  many  years  a  sojourner  among  those  peoples, 
and  an  indefatigable  student  of  their  laws,  religions,  manners, 
customs  and  habits.  How  else,  inquires  the  reader,  could  a  man 
know  so  much  and  know  it  so  well.  It  seems,  however,  that 
you  have  gathered  your  prejudices  against  them  in  Possum  Hol- 
ler, and  from  such  inklings  of  tattle  and  driblets  of  loose  talk 
as  could  be  extracted  from  such  strolling  Frenchmen  as  you 
chance  to  travel  with  in  visiting  about  among  the  neighboring 
Hollers,  £Jcce  siffnu??i,  ''  Whoever  travels  for  a  few  hours  (from 
one  Holler  to  another)  with  a  Frenchman  who  represents  the  ave- 
rage opinion  and  feeling  of  France,  will  see  that  that  nation  at  large 
have  hardly  heard  of  Christianity,  6fc.''^  Walter  Scott  never 
made  his  poor  drivelling  idiot ^  Simon  Gallately,  mumble  over 
such  peurile  twaddle  as  this,  and  the  Devil  never  sent  from  the 
infernal  regions  one  of  his  own  imps  with  a  misrepresentation 
in  charge  more  utterly  bald,  graceless  and  gross.  Fortunately, 
however,  the  imbecility  of  a  writer  capable  of  such  flatulent 
inanity  cries  trumpet-tongued,  ^'■caveat  emptor,''^  to  the  cre- 
dulity of  the  reader.  And  you  happily  illustrate  the  truth  of 
the  proverb  dat  Deus  immiti  cornua  curta  bovi,  (God  gives  short 
horns  to  the  vicious  ox.)  You  wring  the  changes  on  the  origin 
of  this  law  I  suggested,  with  remarkable  energy.  Its  coming 
from  France  and  Germany  you  contend  is  alone  sufficient  to  seal 
its  everlasting,  just  damnation  and  preclude  now  and  forever  its 
adoption  by  any  of  the  Confederate  States.  Now  let  us  pursue 
this  reasoning  in  the  direction  you  insist  it  shall  go.  France 
and  Germany  foster  their  internal  resources,  develop  their  na- 
tional strength,  protect  industrialpursuits,  and  flatter  the  arts  and 
sciences.  They  fight  their  enemies  and  thrash  them.  They 
adhere  to  that  international  comity  known  as  the  law  of  nations, 


87 

and  obey  it.  They  have  courts  of  justice,  through  the  judg- 
ments and  processes  of  which  they  coerce  the  payment  of  just 
debts  and  punish  crime.  They  clothe  the  naked,  feed  the  fa- 
mishing, and  nurse  the  sick.  They  hvc  in  houses,  eat  bread 
and  meat,  and  wear  clothes.  Now,  suppose  your  reasoning  to 
be  worth  the  shadow  of  a  Scotch  haubee,  if  we  do  one  of  these 
things  we  are  bound  to  be  damned  inevitably  and  everlastingly 
damned.  We  must  ignore  the  law  of  nations,  put  chains  on 
the  arts  and  sciences,  license  murder,  theft,  rape  and  robbery, 
because  if  we  do  not  we  will  be  imitating  France  and  Germany, 
and  will  surely  draw  down  upon  us  the  "wrath  of  the  Lord  Je- 
hovah." The  French  and  (Germans  in  times  gone  by,  have  en- 
dured the  terrible  torments  of  famine  unto  death,  and  in  other 
cases  set  fire  to  their  forts  and  cities  and  perished  in  the  lianies 
before  they  would  surrender  to  an  enemy.  I  suppose  you  would 
have  our  forts  and  cities  hang  out  a  white  flag  before  they  are 
beleaguered,  and  would  interpose  between  the  firebrand  anil  the 
cotton  bale,  and  tobacco  casque,  the  objection  that  there  is  se- 
rious danger  in  it,  because  of  the  resemblance  it  must  wear 
to  the  conduct  of  those  silly  infidels.-  In  fine,  we  must  live  on 
lierbs  and  in  tents  as  the  Arabs  do,  and  go  out  into  the  world  in 
puris  naturalibus  (stark  naked)  just  because  those  miserable,  im- 
pertinent, forward  and  "nefarious"  infidels  live  in  houses,  eat 
bread  and  meat  and  conceal  their  trilling  bodies  in  clothes.  Yet 
strange  to  say  in  France  and  Germany  there  are  less  drunkards, 
nmrderers  and  gawhlcrs  than  there  are  in  America.  These  are 
statistical  facts.  WiuU  will  you  do  widi  them.  I  am  somewhat 
puzzled  to  decide  which  deserves  the  most  signal  reprobation 
your  niggardly  illiberality  towards  France,  or  your  execrable  in- 
gratitude to  Germany.  No  man  has  ever  yet  been  held  accounta- 
ble among  men  for  the  ravings  of  insanity.  Yet  you  point  to 
what  France  did  during  the  reign  of  terror — when  she  was  in 
the  throes  of  a  frantic  plu'enzy,  and  her  institutions  were  lost  in 
chaotic  anarchy,  in  order  to  put  upon  her  the  stigma  of  infidelity; 
and  now,  sir,  in  order  to  sting  your  compunction  to  the  quick, 
if  you  haw  any  compunction  and  that  has  any  quick,  I  will  call 
on  you  before  the  world  to  answer  the  two  following  questions: 
Firstly.  If  any  man  was  elevated  to  power  during  the  reign  ol" 
terror  because  he  tms  an  infidel,  who  was  it?  Secondly.  If  any 
man  lost  his  li/c  during  the  reign  of  terror  because  he  was  noiaii 
infidel,  who  Avas  it.'  You  certainly  have  never  read  the  history 
oJ"  tli(!  French  revolution  and  uiuil  you  do  I  hope  and  trust  you 
will  have  no  more  to  say  about  it.  'J'hat  you  are  a  Protestant  is 
self  evident,  that  you  are  deacon  is  remotely  probable.  If,  how- 
ever, you  are  a  Protestant  deacon,  why  under  Heaven  do  you 
brand  with  infidelity  the  country,  but  for  the  Christianity  of 
which  you  would  either  be  without  any  rehgion  at  all,  an  infidel 


88 

or  a  Papist  to-day-  'Twas  on  German  soilj  sir,  the  Reformation 
was  born.  'Twas  Martin  Luther,  sir,  who  invaded  the  papal 
cells  in  which  the  Bible  had  been  buried,  in  monastic  seclusion, 
for  more  than  a  thousand  years;  struck  off  its  fetters,  forged  them 
into  weapons,  and  fought  with  them  its  way  to  freedom  and  to 
fame.  Yet  in  the  face  of  this  fact  and  ten  thousand  other  facts 
which  conspire  to  prove  Germany  a  CI  iristian  country,  you  shout 
''^infidelity,"  ''infidelity,"  against  hi^r,  exactly  as  the  Jewish 
rabble  of  old,  when  no  crime  could  be  proven  against  our  Lord 
and  Saviour,  cried — "  crucify  him,"  "  c  rucify  him."  You  ask  if 
Richmond  will  not  compare  favorably  ^^rith  Baden- Baden.  Well, 
sir,  you  have  asked  a  fliir  question,  and  you  are  entitled  to  a 
frank  answer.  If  I  were  to  dodge  it  I  should  be  guilty  of  the 
same  unmanly  disingenuousness  for  whi  ch  I  have  already  pointed, 
at  you 

"  The  slow  unmoving  finger  of  hiorn." 

We,  sir,  are  at  this  time  engaged  in  a  glorious  struggle  for 
light,  liberty  and  life.  Those  dear  to  u.s  as  "light  and  life" 
have  left  the  homes  of  which  they  were  the  hope  and  stay,  and 
gone  forth  to  lay  down  thefr  precious,  youn  g  and  fresh  lives,  that 
we  may  be  free.  They  are  enduring  the  pi  ivations  of  the  camp, 
braving  the  perils  of  the  "embattled  plain,"  and  running  the 
gauntlet  of  camp  diseases,  in  defence  of  ou  r  honor  and  to  secure 
our  happiness,  and  on  this  high  and  holy  mission  they  are 
stricken  down  daily,  on  the  right  and  on  tb  e  left,  some  with  one 
disease,  some  with  another,  and  some  with  the  bullets  of  the 
foe;  yet  if  you  were  to  visit  one  of  our  fashionable  hotels  after  9 
o'clock  on  almost  any  evening  in  the  week,  you  would  find  as- 
sembled there  as  gay  and  hilarious  a  company  as  ever  met  at  Ba- 
den-Baden, enjoying,  what  in  the  elegant  parlance  of  the  times 
is  termed  '-'a  hop."  Yes,  sir,  when  they  were  evacuating  Nash- 
ville they  were  dancing  in  Richmond.  Terror  reigned  in  one 
place,  and 

"On  with  the  dance,  let  joy  be  unconfined," 

was  the  cry  in  the  other.  Now,  sir,  whatever  happened  in  Ba- 
den that  you  can  produce  as  a  Roland  for  such  an  Oliver.  You 
charge  me  with  having  said  that  a  chance  was  a  "rea%."  I 
never  made  any  such  a  ridiculous  assertion.  It  seems  to  be  your 
continuous  misfortune  to  employ  terms  of  the  significance  of 
which  you  are  ignorant,  and  to  employ  your  ignorance  upon 
terms  totally  destitute  of  significance.  That  which  you  attempt 
to  present  you  evidently  misunderstand,  and  that  which  you  can- 
not misunderstand  you  almost  invariably  misrepresent.  For  in- 
stance, you  speak  of  the  veiy  "  high  opinion"  1  entertain  for  the 
colloquial  gifts,  &.c.  of  certain  gamblers,  whereas  I  never  have 
expressed  an  opinion  upon  thai  subject.     Wha^t  I  said  I  stated 


89 

not  as  an  opinion,  but  a  fact.  To  escape  the  force,  liowever,  of 
Tifact^  which  you  dare  not  deny,  you  call  it  an  opinion,  and  at- 
tempt to  saddle  nic  with  it.  To  treat  an  able  opinion  as  a  fact  if 
as  a  fact  you  could  disprove  it,  would  be  decidedly  cute,  but  to 
treat  a  simple  fact  as  an  opinion,  only  because,  as  an  opinion, 
you  can  ridicule  it,  but  as  a  fact  you  cannot^  is  worthy  only  of 
the  special  pleading  of  Possum  Holler.  A  fact  is  tangible,  an 
opinion  is  not.  You  can  plead  the  general  issue  to  the  one,  but 
only  a  set-off  to  the  other.  Facts  have  a  substantive  existence, 
whereas  opinions  are  merely  ephemeral.  I  have  often  known 
disputants,  when  hard  pressed  for  evidence,  to  attempt  to  wedge 
in  an  opinion  for  a  fact,  but  you  are  the  first  one  I  ever  met  bold 
enough  to  attempt  to  shrivel  a  fact  down  to  an  opinion.  Why 
did  you  do  it?  Was  it  a  ruse  or  the  result  of  unaffected  stupi- 
dity. If  it  was  a  ruse,  it  was  an  admission  in  the  first  place 
that  they  are  facts  you  cannot  disprove,  and  secondly,  that  you 
seriously  dread  the  force  with  which  you  are  apprehensive  they 
will  surely  strike  the  public  mind.  If  it  was  honest  stupidity, 
why  you 

"Still  in  despite 
Of  nature  and  the  stars  will  write," 

must  excite  no  little  amazement.  You  intimate  that  I  have  been 
guilty  of  a  fatal  folly  in  speaking  of  gamblers  in  terms  "  to  which 
men  are  not  habituated."  Whatever  I  have  to  say  is  subject  to 
but  one  rule.  That  rule  simply  requires  that  whatever  is  spoken 
or  written,  must  be  the  truth.  Aura  popularis,  I  never  court 
what  the  public  iL-a7it  to  hear.,  what  vi'iW  pay  best  or  secure  the 
greatest  extent  of  popularity,  I  never,  I  may  say,  salvo  pudore, 
pause  to  inquire.  If  then,  sir,  you  have  not  habituated  your 
people  in  your  sequestered  ravine,  to  hear  the  truth,  until' you 
can  show  where  the  truth  or  myself  is  to  blame  for  that  you  have  no 
just  grounds  on  which  to  pick  a  quarrel  with  us  about  it,  and  until 
you  can  refute  a  statement  never  marvel  at  its  strangeness. 
There  is  a  distinction  between  men  who  occasionally  gamble 
and  professional  '<  sports."  A  man  may  gamble  even  frequently 
■without  being  justly  regarded  as  a  gambler.  It  is  only  tliose  who 
gamble  for  a  livelihood  who  are  gamesters.  A  farmer  may  go 
hunting  or  fishing  every  day  in  the  week,  but  if  he  tills  his  farm 
for  a  livelihood,  he  is  neither  a  huntsman  or  a  fisherman.  And  a 
farmer  just  in  the  same  way  can  play  cards  for  money  very  fre- 
quently and  still  be  a  farmer.  You  say  that  there  is  not  more 
than  ten  per  cent  of  our  people  who  are  gamesters.  That  is  an 
egregious  blunder.  The  truth  is  there  is  not  three  per  cent  of 
our  people  who  are  gamesters.  But  when  you  say  that  not  more 
than  one  in  ten  of  our  people  gamble  yoti  blunder  again,  for  out 
of  Possum  Holler  there  are  communities  where  99  in  100  who 
are  out  of  the  church  (and  some  who  are  in  it)  do  occasionally 
12 


90 

gamble.  You  ask  ''is  there  a  law-abiding,  proper  businessman 
in  Richmond  or  elsewhere  in  Virginia,  who  does  not  repel  such 
a  proposal  (to  license  gambling)  with  indignation?"  Yes,  sir, 
there  are  thousands  of  Virginia's  best  citizens  who  think  and 
say  that  gambling  ought  to  be  licensed.  Some  of  her  wisest  and 
purest  statesmen  say  so.  The  Senate  of  Louisiana  bas  passed  a 
bill  licensing  gambling  since  this  controversy  commenced.  How- 
much  the  long  catalogue  oi  faux  pas  you  have  perpetrated  in 
this  discussion,  may  have  contributed  to  bring  about  that  result 
I  cannot  say,  but  it  is  certainly  so.  Gambling  has  been  licensed 
for  about  ten  years  in  California.  Vvhen  General  , Scott  took 
Vera  Cruz  and  the  City  of  Mexico  and  put  Governors  over  them 
under  our  military  governments,  gambling  was  licensed  in  both 
places.  The  roulette  was  licensed  in  North  Carolina  forty  years 
ago,  and  billiard  tables,  where  men  gamble  every  day  for  at 
least  the  price  of  a  game  of  billiards,  are  licensed  already  in  Vir- 
ginia. You  may  say  the  sum  is  small  for  which  men  gamble  at 
billiards.  That  is  very  true,  but  the  principle  is  the  same,  and 
if  you  attempt  to  defend  it  on  that  ground,  you  will  land  pre- 
cisely where  a  candidate  for  Congress  did  in  Vermont,  who  re- 
plied when  his  adversary  taunted  him  with  tlie  fact  that  his  sis- 
ter was  the  mother  of  a  bastard  child,  "  1  don't  care  if  sister  Sal 
did  have  a  bastard  child,  it  was  nothing  but  a  little  bit  of  a  thing 
anyhow,  and  she  jiever  would  have  had  that  if  other  people  had  let 
her  alone."  Laws  too  severe  are  as  fruidess  of  virtue  as  are 
those  which  are  too  loose  to  be  effective.  There  is  a  modus  ifi 
rebus  and  in  my  humble  judgment  the  license  system  in  this  in- 
stance would  prove  to  be  that  jusle  'milieu.  Hie  est  aut  nusquam 
quod  ([uwrimus ,  (that  which  we  seek  is  here  or  nowhere.)  The 
poet  tells  us 

"  Some  certain  mean  in  all  things  may  be  found, 
To  mark  our  virtues  and  our  rices  bound." 

If  gambling  is  to  be  put  down  at  all,  it  must  be  by  a  law  that  will 
Jiotseem  to  wiw  at  that  purpose.  <'Mr.  Pitt,"  says  Colton,  ''at  a 
moment  when  the  greatest  jealousy  existed  in  the  country  on  the 
subject  of  the  freedom  of  the  press,  inflicted  a  mortal  blow  on 
this  guardian  of  our  liberties  -without  seeming  to  touch  or  even  to 
aim  at  it;  he  doubled  the  tax  upon  all  advertisements,  and  this 
single  act  immediately  knocked  up  all  the  host  ot  pamphleteers 
who  formed  the  sharp-shooters  and  tiraelleurs  of  literature,  and 
whose  fire  struck  more  terror  into  his  administration  than  the 
heaviest  cannonade  from  bulky  quartos  and  folios  could  produce; 
the  former  were  ready  for  th§  moment,  but  before  the  latter  could 
be  loaded  and  brought  to  bear,  the  object  was  either  changed  or 
removed,  and  had  ceased  to  awaken  the  jealousies  or  to  excite 
the  tears  of  the  nation."     In  order  to  ascertain  wliat  means  can 


91 

be  made  the  most  available  in  the  suppression  of  gambling,  we  nmst  look  into 
fo7is  et  origo  (the  causes  which  produce  it.)  What  are  they.  First.  An  uiiquencli- 
able  thirst  in  the  human  bosom  for  excitement.  Secondly.  Avarice.  Thirdly. 
The  cringing  awe  with  which  a  boot-licking  world  plnys  the  toady  to  opulence. 
Fourthly.  The  supercilious  contempt  with  which'  that  same  obsequious  world  (to 
tiie  rich)  regard  poverty.  Fifthly.  The  fabulous  percent,  swindling  in  gambling 
pays.  Sixthly.  The  impunity  that  seems  to  be  the  prerogative  of  that  popular 
species  of  swindling,  and  lastly,  the  universal  popularity  of  the  vice  of  gambling. 
In  the  first  place,  then,  why  do  men  run  after  music,  eloquence,  anecdote,  negro 
minstrels,  and  harlequinery.  Why  do  men  listen  with  more  strict  attention  to 
an  inflammatory  harangue,  that  may  not  be  argumentative,  than  to  a  prosaical 
discourse,  that  is,  to  an  anecdote  than  to  a  prayer,  to  an  extravaganza  than  to  a  lec- 
ture, or  derive  more  pleasure  from  pantomimic  drollery  than  from  Hamlet,  or  hear- 
ing an  opera  they  do  not  understand  than  from  reading  an  essay  they  do.  Simply 
because  the  great  desideratum  of  life  is  excitement.  This  is  reponsc  sans  rrpliqne, 
and  the  very  same  reason  which  humbles  the  genius  of  Avon's  mighty  hard  at  the 
dirty  footstool  of  Punch  and  Judy,  asserts  the  dominion  of  faro  over  all  other 
pastimes,  to  wit,  its  exhaustless  resources  for  excitement.  It  was  introduced  into 
France  to  arouse  and  fire  the  spiritless  and  feeble  intellect  of  King  Charles  the 
Seventh,  and  whenever  his  ministers  of  State  wanted  his  assent  to  any  measure 
of  public  importance,  they  would  get  Agnes  Sorrel  to  set  his  mind  in  a  blaze  with 
a  game  of  faro,  and  he  would  soon  be  put  in  possession  of  all  the  capacity  with 
which  he  was  endowed.  Secondly,  on  the  power  of  avarice  amor  uummi — nuri 
sacra  fame,  1  can  summon  into  court  witnesses  from  all  ages  of  time,  aye,  from 
even  beyond  that  food,  and  from  every  clime  under  vhe  sun,  to  prove  the  tyranny 
of  this  sordid  passion.     One  poet  tells  us 


And  another,  that- 
Virgil  exclaims: 


"  Corroding  care  and  thirst  of  more 
Attends  the  still  increasing  store." 


"  Few  gain  to  live,  (pray  listen,)  few  or  none, 
But  blind  with  avarice,  live  to  gain  alone." 


Quid  nan  moi'ialia  pectora  cogie, 
Aiiri  sacra  /a»»w. 


(Accurst  thirst  for  gold,  to  what  dost  thou  not  urge  the  human  heart.)  Hear- 
ken to  the  ravings  of  Shylock: 

My  daugliter!  0  my  ducats — 0  my  daughter, 
Fled  with  a  Christian! -0  my  Christian  ducats. 
Justice!  the  lawl  my  ducats  and  my  daughter. 

'•  Why,  there,  there,  there  I  a  diamond  gone  cost  me  2000  ducats  in  Frankfort ! 
The  curse  never  fell  upon  my  nation  till  now.  I  never  felt  it  till  now: — 2000  du- 
cats in  that;  and  other  precious,  precious  jewels.  1  would  my  daughter  were 
dead  at  my  foot  and  the  ducats  in  her  coffin. 

The  whole  human  race  is  affected  with  scabiem  ct  contagia  lucri,  (the  contagious 
itch  for  gain.)  Hominis,  (truthfully  says  Justinian)  quo  plura  habent  eo  ampliora 
cupiunt  (the  more  we  have  the  more  we  want.)  It  was  Lord  Bacon's  avarice 
that  made  Pope  satirize  him  as  the  "meanest  of  mankind."  'Twas  avarice  that 
made  Marlboro  a  boorish  brute,  and  the  Duke  of  Alva  a  bloody  butcher,  and  it  is 
that  self-same  consuming  flame  which  swarms  the  gambling  saloons  of  Richmond 
to-day  with  eager  and  hungry  patrons,  and  always  will  do  it 
'•  While  circling  time  moTCs  round  in  an  eternal  sphere," 

In  the  third  place  volumes  of  testimony  can  be  piled  on  volumes  mountain  high* 
to  prove  the  abject,  cringing  servility  with  which  a  world  of  moral  dastards  fawn 
upon  and  flatter  the  opulent.  Gold  is  a  God,  worshipped,  the  world  round  and 
over,  without  a  temple,  an  altar  or  a  hypocrit.     Listen  to  Horace: 

"  Omnitt  (enim)  rM 
rirtH)i,fama  decuK,  ditina  humamtqiie  yndrrU 
/'iritiiH  jiarent.^'' 

which  poetically  interpreted  runs  thus: 

"Now  virtue,  glory,  beauty,  all  divine, 

▲ad  humftu  pg^erg,  immortal  gold  are  thine," 


92 

Cpes  (says  Ovid)  irritmnenla  malorum,  (riches  are  the  incentive  to  every  kind  of 
wickedness,)  which  is  corroborated  by  the  old  Italian  proverb  dove  I'oro  parla,  og- 
ni  lingua  tact,  and  the  latin  maxim  auro  loquente  nihil  pallet  qiucxns  alio,  (the  sub- 
stance of  both  of  which  is  gold  ^ilences  reason.  Another  one  of  the  muses  testi- 
fies thus: 

"  Stronger  than  thunder's  wingeit  force 

All  powerful  gold  can  speed  its  course, 

Through  watchful  guards  its  passage  make, 

And  loves  through  solid  walls  to  break." 

Gibbon  tells  us  that  after  the  Prsetorian  Guards  assassinated  the  Emperor  Per- 
tinax,  they  determined  to  put  up  the  diadem  of  the  Cjesars  at  auction,  and  that 
the  Emperorship  of  the  haughty  mistress  of  the  world  was  actually  knocked  off  at 
public  outcry  to  the  highest  bidder,  who  Avas  an  old  epicurean  millionaire,  whose 
name  was  Didius  Julianus.  An  obsequious  and  time-serving  Senate  ratified  the 
sale,  and  albeit  the  superannuated  old  debauche,  only  wore  the  purple  66  days, 
when  Severus  made  him  take  it  off  somewhat  like  a  Southern  overseer  makes  a 
refractory  African  shuck  his  linen  at  his  bidding.  Yet  impartial  history  must 
hand  him  down  to  the  last  hour  of  expiring  time  among  Rome's  Emperors,  and 
is  it  not  recorded  in  Holy  Writ  that  for  thirty  pieces  of  silver  one  Judas  iscariot 
sold  the  life  of  his  Lord  and  Master.  Do  you  tell  me  that  man  is  not  as  de- 
praved as  he  was  then,  1  tell  you  he  is  more  so,  and  if  Judas  Iscariot  were  on  earth 
to-day,  he  would  be  a  gentleman  in  comparison  with  some  specimens  of  his  own 
race,  and  some  other  races  too,  who  are  here.  Thirty  pieces  of  stiver.  Why, 
sir,  that  sum  nowi?i  silver  could  purchase  a  kiss  to  betray  the  Messiah,  if  he  was 
on  earth,  and  a  kiss  a-piece  for  each  one  of  his  disciples.  Look  around  you  and 
scrutinize  the  conduct  of  your  fellow  men  who  speak  the  same  tongue  and  pretend 
to  worship  the  same  God  you  do,  and  you  will  find  money  working  moral  miracles  as 
astounding  as  were  ever  wrought  in  the  physical  world  by  divine  inspiration.  You 
will  find  parents  coercing  their  daughters  to  go  to  the  altar  with  men  they  know 
they  loathe,  thereby  becoming  a  party  to  the  rape  of  their  own  helpless  children. 
.  'Tis  in  vain  that  the  child  on  bended  knees  piteously  prays  for  deliverance  from 
"these  hated  nuptials."  Master  Walters  are  "few  and  far  between."  The 
trade  has  been  struck,  and  the  brutal  bridegroom  demands  to  the  letter  his  bond 
in  flesh.  Tears  may  stream  in  torrents,  moans,  and  groans,  and  screams  may 
v/ail  the  dirge  of  a  broken  heart,  nevertheless  the  ravisher  being  rich,  and  having 
paid  for  his  prize  (in  being  rich)  the  rape  must  and  does  proceed.  What  is  the 
proper  ligh't  in  which  to  regard  a  marriage  where  the  female  consents  to  wed 
only  because  the  bridegroom  is  wealthy.  She  does  not  pretend  to  love  him,  but 
thinks  she  can  learn  to  respect  him,  (which  is  not  as  much  as  it  is  said  the  Parisian 
courtesans  do,  for  many  of  them  do  love  their  paramours.)  It  amounts  simply  to 
a  contract  to  live  with  a  man  until  one  or  the  other  dies,  as  children  may  be  one 
of  the  results  of  this  arrangement,  and  as  society  has  some  ridiculously  fastidious 
notions  about  the  forms  of  law,  in  order  to  legitimatise  the  children  and  flatter  the 
conventionalities  of  society,  a  Jormal  ceremony  is  gone  through  with,  and  after 
that  is  over  they  are  regarded  legally  as  man  and  wife,  when  animo  et  facto  she  is 
but  his  mistress  and  living  with  him  in  legalized  prostitution.  She  has  driven  a 
right  sharp  trade.  She  has  managed  to  remain  in  genteel  society,  to  protect  her 
children  against  illegitimacy,  and  she  has  avoided  the  vicissitudes  and  the  infamy 
of  a  harlot's  life,  notwithstanding  she  is  as  unmitigated  a  harlot  as  ever  paraded 
her  charms  in  market  to  tantalize  the  hot  blood  of  lecherous  youth.  Who  can 
wonder,  then,  when  we  see  what  gold  has  done,  and  know  what  gold  can  do,  that 
men  will  gamble  to  accumulate  it;  more  especially,  when  on  the  other  hand,  in 
the  fourth  place,  we  remember  how  the  poor  and  humble  always  have  been  re- 
garded and  treated  by  the  heartless  and  haughty. 

"See  yonder  poor,  o'erlabored  wight, 
^  So  abject,  mean  and  vile. 

Who  begs  a  brother  of  the  earth 
To  give  him  leave  to  toil ! 
And  see  his  lord'y  fellow  worm 

The  poor  petition  spurn, 
Unmiudful  tho'  a  weeping  wife 
And  helpless  offspring  mourn." 

No  man  could  report  the  condition  of  his  finances  with  figures  any  better  than 
Burns  did  in  these  lines: 


93 


"I've  seen  sae  monip  chnngefu'  year*, 
On  earth  I  am  u  .stranger  grown  ; 
1  wiiniler  in  ttie  ways  of  men, 
Alike  unknowing  and  iink'noicn, 
Vnhearii,  v/ijiitied,  ^itireliered, 
I  bear  alane  my  lade  o'  care, 
For  silent,  low,  on  beds  of  dust 
Lie  a'  that  would  my  sorrows  share. 


TIiP  poor  may  be  pure  and  upright; 


"But  then  to  see  how  the're  neftleekit 
How  hulT'd  and  cuffed  and  disrespeckit. 

«  *  «  *  4<  « 

I've  noticed,  on  our  Laird's  court-day, 
^n'  mony  a  time  my  heart's  been  wae. 
Poor  tenant  bodies,  scant  o'  cash, 
J(ow  they  maun  thole  a  factor's  snash  : 
He'll  stanip  and  threaten,  curse  and  swear. 
He'll  apjirehend  them,  poined  their  gear, 
While  they  maun  stan'  wi  aspect  humble, 
An'  bear  it  a'  an'  fear  an'  tremble, 

And  another  poet  has  said : 

"When  smllinsr  fortune  spreads  her  golden  rajr 
All  crowd  around  tn  flatter  and  obey ; 
But  when  she  thunderji  from  an  angry  sky, 
Our  friends,  our  llattercrs  and  our  lovers  fly." 

Paupertas  (says  Lnc&n)  fitgilur  toloque  arcessitur  or&<,  (poverty  is  shunned  and 
persecuted,  and  looked  upon  as  a  crime  all  over  the  world.)  Horace  on  the  same 
point  says  : 

ifognum  pnup^rifA  opprobrium  juhet 
Quidris  et/iicoere  ei pad. 

(Poverty,  which  is  considered  a  great  reproach,  forces  us  to  attempt  or  submit 
to  anything.)     It  was  what  the  ploughman  bard  had  seen  the  trampled  poor  suf- 
•  ler  under  the  grinding  heel  of  the  rich,  which  made  him  exclaim  • 

I  "  Man's  inhumanity  to  man 

Makes  countless  thousands  mourn." 

And  we  all  know  that 

"  Want  is  the  scorn  of  every  wealthy  fool, 
And  wit  in  rags  is  turned  to"  ridicule. 
That  high  (lescent  and  meritorious  deeds, 
Umblest  with  wealth  are  viler  than  sea  weeds." 

Marvel,  then,  who  can  !  at  the  craigne:  honfe  with  which  sensitive  pride  recoils 
from  this  moral  cobra  capella  poverty.  Terror-stricken  and  appalled  at  the  threat 
of  his  deadly  fang,  thousands  have  fled  xtsque  ad  aras— to  the  very  horns  of  the 
altars  of  chance  for  protection.  Before  entering  upon  the  discussion  if  the  fifth 
cause  which  is  productive  of  gaming,  inasmuch  as  faro  is  the  monarch  of  all 
games  of  chance  at  cards,  ^will  have  something  to  say  specially  of  it.  The 
name  by  which  it  was  known  in  Egypt  when  Pharoah  was  on  the  Egyptian  throne 
was  Turgot,  (see  Noel's  French  dictionary  of  events  and  inventions)  and  one 
theory  about  the  derivation  of  its  name  is,  that  the  name  "Faro"  Was  substituted 
for  Turgot  to  flatter  King  Pharaoh  and  propitiate  his  patronage.  Another  is  that 
itscognonien  is  derived  from  the  Greek /oros  which  means  fire,  because  of  the  fire 
with  which  it  consumes  the  human  feelings,  and  it  was  the  opinion  of  Mar- 
quis de  La  Fayette,  who  introduced  the  game  on  this  continent  and  played  it  in 
the  presence  and  in  the  marquee  of  the  Father  of  his  Country,  that  tliis  is  the 
more  plausible  derivation.  There  is  still  another,  however.  It  seems  that  be- 
tween Italy  and  Sicily  there  is  a  strait  called  Faro  of  Messina,  where  the  tide  ebbs 
and  flows  every  six  hours,  and  the  fickleness  of  lucks  tides  in  Faro  where  it  ebbs 
and  flows  every  six  minutes,  furnishes  a  felicitous  illustration  of  the  whimsicalness 
of  the  tides  of  Faro  de  Messina,  and  the  game  may  have  derived  its  name  from 
that  fact.  It  is  only,  however,  when  it  is  honestly  plaved  that  it  is  characterized 
by  so  many  mutations.  In  it,  Ihen,  there  is  not  a  tri'ck  that  approximates  the 
slightest  similitude  to  what  is  termed  a  legitimate  finesse.  You  can  choose  the 
card  on  which  you  will  bet,  it  has  but  two  places  to  fall  and  you  can  choose  which 
one  of  those  places  you  will  bet  it  will  fall.  Not  a  word  is  spoken,  not  a  lie  is 
told,  not  a  deception  is  practised.    There  is  ia  it  what  is  technically  termed 


94 

••splits"  and  "cases."  The  "splits"  give  the  dealer  an  advantage  of  about  five 
per  cent,  but  you  can  avoid  them  by  betting  only  on  the  "cases,"  when  the  result 
is  purely  a  matter  of  luck  on  which  there  is  no  per  cent.  When,  however,  a  sport- 
ing Neptune  waves  the  trident  of  fraud  over  his  Faro-box,  its  tide  can  be  made 
to  flow  with  the  resistless  volume  and  velocity  of  the  gulf  stream. 

"  Like  to  the  I'ontiac  sea 
Whose  icy  current  and  compulsive  course 
Ne'er  feels  retiring  ebb  but  keeps  due  on 
To  the  Propontic  and  the  Uellespont." 

Luck  vanishes,  then,  and  the  result  is  the  offspring  of  texir  d'addresse,  and  the 
dealers'  advantage  is  so  incalculable  that  "few  and  far  between  are  the  men  who, 
goaded  by  the  spur  of  avtirice,  proscribed  by  the  frown  of  society,  flattered  by 
the  siren  songs  of  Mammon,  threatened  by  the  fatal  fangs  of  the  hooded 
snake,  poverty,  and  deterred  by  no  legal  penalty,  possess  the  nerve  to  resist  the 
dazzling  temptation  to  perpetrate  fraud,  such  enormous  profits  holds  out  to  frail 
flesh.  Les  verhis  (says  Rouchfaucald)  se  perdent  dans  I'interet,  comme  lesfleuves  se 
perdent  dans  la  mer,  (our  virtues  lose  themselves  in  our  interest,  as  the  rivers  lose 
themselves  in  the  ocean,)  and  it  has  been  truly  said — 

"The  man  who  thirsts  for  gold  hath  left  the  i)ost, 
Where  virtue  placed  him  and  his  arms  hath  lost." 

And  Juvenal  bluntly  asks  Quidsalvis  infamia  nummis ,  (what  matters  infamy  so  long 
as  your  cash  is  safe,)  and  appropos  are  these  lines  too  : 

"For  though  compelled  beyond  the  Tiber's  flood, 
To  move  your  tanyard,  swear  the  smell  is  good, 
Mj'rrh  cassia,  and  frankincense;  and  wisely  think 
That  wJiat  is  hicriitive.  can-  never  i<Unk.^^ 

Which  fully  accords  with  Juvenal's  idea,  to  wit — lucvi  bonus  est  odor  ex  re  qualibet 
(the  smell  of  gain  is  good  from  anything  whatever,)  which  must  of  course  include 
cards  and  dice,  and  the  same  sentiment  is  taught  in  the  lines, 

"Ye  grovelling  louts  let  money  first  be  sought, 
A'irtue  is  only  worth  a  second  thought." 

"Get  wealth  and  power  if  possible  with  grace. 
If  not  by  any  means  get  wealth  and  place." 
******* 

My  friend  get  money  get  a  large  estate. 
By  honest  means,  but  get,  at  any  rate. 
******* 

"Rarely  they  rise  by  virtue's  aid  who  lie 
Plunged  in  the  depths  of  hej-jess  poverty." 

(You  certainly  must  admit,  sir,  that  I  am  making  up  for  my  neglect  of  Perseus.) 
In  the  sixth  place  there  are  som.e  crimes  which  are  malum  in  se,  and  others  which 
are  only  malum  prohibitum,  and  it  is  to  the  latter  class  gaming  belongs.  I  never 
said  that  gambling  had  always  been  a  crime  of  "no  ordinary  magnitude."  When 
Barsabas  and  Matthias  gambled,  it  was  no  crime^t  all.  It  had  not  then  been 
proliibited.  When  God  gave  the  decalogue  to  Moses  on  Sinai's  flaming  summit, 
he  did  Tiot  proscribe  gambling,  and  it  is  not  inhibited  in  the  old  or  new  Testament, 
and  the  laws  of  Virginia  tolerate  it  to-day  (on  the  turf.)  Per  se  it  is  not  a  crime 
neither  of  one  magnitude  or  another.  Legislators  have  made  dealing  Faro  a  crime, 
but  it  took  Legislation  to  do  it.  Why,  then,  I  ask  did  the  Legislators  of  Virginia 
make  that  a  crime,  which  the  all-wise  Ruler  of  the  Universe  did  not  in  the  omni- 
science of  his  infallible  wisdom,  designate  as  such.  For  the  sin'iple  reason  that 
the  craft  and  cupidity  of  man  has  introduced  into  all  manner  of  gaming,  so  much 
subtlety  and  villainy,  that  to  prevent  the  one  they  thought  they  had  to  forbid  the 
other,  and  that  is  precisely  where  they  blundered,  and  ichy  they  failed.  If  gam- 
bling always  had  been  conducted  honestly  it  never  had  been  forbidden  legally, 
and  the  stupendous  blunder  upon  which  the  Legislatures  of  all  the  States  have 
stumbled,  is  that  they  have  forbidden  gambling,  which  is  not  when  honestly  con- 
ducted per  se  a  crime,  and  refused  to  forbid  gambling  frauds  which  are  not  only 
malum  in  se,  (for  the  8th  commandment  says  thou  shall  not  steal,  and  between 
swindling  at  cards  and  stealing  the  difference  is  purely  technical.)  but  makes  gam- 
bling criminal,  the  final  result  of  which  is  that  they  have  refused  to  license  gam- 
bling but  have  licensed  swindling  in  it — placed  integrity  at  a  discount,  and  offered 
a  premium  for  swindling.    Aud  when  the  laws  tolerate  cheating,  and  cheating 


95 

pays  enormous  profits,  and  men  who  are  poor  are  despised  while  the  rich  are  li- 
onised because  of  their  riches,  can  it  excite  surprise  that  avaricious  men  gamble 
and  swindle.  "Lead  us  not  into  temptation,"  was  the  prayer  of  a  God.  Yet, 
sir,  you  and  your  i'analical  aiders  and  abettors  of  swindling  at  cards  set  before 
frail  and  feeble  liesh  the  seductive  temptation  to  swindle,  which  are  to  be  found 
in  manunotii  proliis  and  untrammeled  impunity,  and  then  talk  of  rousing  the  bench, 
and  rousing  the  bar,  and  rousuig  the  pulpit,  and  rousing  the  people  against  gan\- 
bling,  and  you  mi.t;lit  just  as  well  talk  about  rousing  a  ft-athcr  to  check  the  head- 
long sweep  o(  a  prairie  (ire  before  a  Northwestern  tornado.  1  am  told  that  nothing 
is  more  provcrhial  in  Richmond  than  that  gamblers  are  the  most  devoted  of  hus- 
bands and  tender  of  fathers.  They  spare  no  pecuniary  sacrifice  to  secure  to  their 
homes  comfort,  or  to  their  children  the  accomplishments  of  education.  They 
reason  thus  wise,  man's  life  is  but  a  span;  to-morrow  I  shall  be  in  my  grave  and 
forgotten.  Wealth  is  tlie  standard  of  merit.  If  I  leave  my  children  rich  their 
coteniporaries/vill  not  ask  irlio  was  his  or  her/(///ifr,  but  vliat  is  he  or  she  icorllt, 
and  I  will  see  to  it  that  the  answer  to  that  question  shall  be  satisfactory.  By  a 
little  swindling  I  can  coin  a  fortune.  There  is  no  law  against  swindling,  and 
that  fortune  1  will  at  once  proceed  to  coin.  Abolish  this  swindling  and  you 
will  breaU  up  all  such  speculations.  Cheating  is  of  no  modern  origin.  Laban 
swindled  Jacob  when  he  contracted  to  give  him  for  seven  years'  labor  his  beauti- 
ful daughter  Kachcl,  and  then  palmed  olf  on  him  her  sore-eyed  sister  Leah,  and 
then  .lacob  got  even  willi   Luban   by  swindling  him  en  revanckc  in  that  trick  he 

flayed  on  his  cattle,  by  which  he  caused  their  young  to  be  spotted  and  striped, 
n  f'^ct,  Jacob  seems  to  have  been  bornaswindler — he  swindled  his  poor  old  blind 
f;ither  out  of  his  blessing,  and  his  own  brother  out  of  his  binhright;  and  those 
rascally  Israelites  that  made  that  bet  with  Samson  won  it  by  a  fraud,  as  his  an- 
swer proves,  to  wit,  "and  he  said  unto  them,  if  ye  had  not  ploughed  with  my 
heifer  ye  had  not  found  out  my  riddle,"  and  from  that  day  to  this  all  manner  of 
men  have  been  ploughing  with  all  manner  of  heifers,  and  the  law  which  you  arc 

!)leased  to  brand  in  a  windy  way  as  a  "nefarious  proposal"  will  stop  this  heifer 
)us!ness;  yet  you  are  opposed  to  it,  ergo  in  favor  of  ploughing  with  other  peo^de's 
heifers.  Of  ibis  you  may  rest  assured,  that  until  the  heifer  business  is  stopped 
the  riddle  business  will  go  on,  but  license  the  one  and  yon  will  diminish  it  and 
stop  the  other,  as  William  Pitt,  when  he  taxed  advertisements  muzzled  the  press. 
There  is  but  one  basis  on  which  any  business  can  keep  its  place  among  popular 
avocations,  and  that  is  its  profits.  Cut  down  the  profits  of  gambling,  and  you 
will  break  down  the  business.  As  the  law  now  stands,  if  you  are  swindled 
at  cards  it  is  morally  a  high  crime,  but  as  it  occurred  at  a  game  of  cards,  which 
is  also  legally  a  crime,  you  having  been  ])articeps  criminis  in  one,  have  to  submit  to 
the  other,  firrlerc  vdandiim  est.  scclus,  (one  crime  has  to  hide  another;)  and  more- 
over oinnc  magnus  conlriet  In  sc  minus,  (the  greater  contains  the  less.)  Of  this  state 
of  things  there  are  those  who  live  onl}'  tu  avail  themselves.  Make  card  frauds 
felonies,  and  j'ou  will  proselyte  all  such  votaries.  They  only  play  when  it  will 
pay.  Fair  play  is  slow  pay.  l^oul  play  fat  and  fast  pay.  Cut  off  cheating  a1 
cards  and  tlie  clieraHcr  (t'luiluslrie.  will  cut  the  calling.  It  is  tlie  impunily  swindling 
enjoys  that  plays  the  part  of  the  wilef  serpent  in  the  garden,  and  holds  out  to  hungry 
avarice  the  forbidden  fruit,  and  wliocan  wonder  that  the  fruit  is  grabbed  greedily 
and  devoured  voraciously,  when  the  grabber  and  biter  knows  there  is  no  hell  I 
nay,  not  even  a  purgatory.  If  then  you  mean  to  legislate  to  any  purpose  you 
must  hold  up  before  these  wayward  descendants  of  Adam  and  Eve  the  terrors  of 
a  nakedness  that  fig  leaves  can  never  hide.  There  is  an  old  Frisian  proverb  which 
says  deer  de.  mint  vul  yle  mot  ze  krecke,  (be  who  will  eat  the  nut  must  crack  it)  or 
as  the  Latin  poet  has  it,  qui  e  nuce  nuctiuni  eise  vull,  frang;al  tuirem,  (he  n  ho  would 
eat  the  kernel  must  crack  tlic  shell.)  Yet  our  f^egisluturesseem  to  thiidc  that  they 
run  get  at  the  kernel  of  one  nut  by  cracking  the  shell  of  another,  and  accordingly 
they  have  made  that  a  crime  which  was  not  a  crime,  and  refused  to  puni>h  as  a 
crime  that  wliicli  is,  and  always  was  a  crime,  wherein  they  have  committed  a 
crime  in  that  Ihey  have  enrnuraged  crime.  Licensing  gambling  will  not  be  rais- 
ing a  revenue  from  crime,  because  if  the  act  is  properly  conslructed,  it  will  eradi- 
cate from  gambling,  that  which  makes  it  a  crimo.  In  t!ie  last  place  is  not  the 
popularity  of  gambling  universal,  and  who  ever  beard  post  liominrs  nalos  of  the 
conviction  of  anv  nmn  of  a  crime  committed  at  the  same  time  by  a  whole  coni- 
Diunity.    Look  into  the  history  of  Louisville's  bloody  Monday,"  of  the  rhiladcl- 


96 

phia  riots,  or  the  Erie  mobs,  and  give  me  the  name  if  you  please,  of  one  single 
man  who  was  ever  convicted  and  executed  for  participating  upon  those  turbulent 
and  sanguinary  occasions.  Lucan  was  right  when  he  said  Q^uidquid  mullis  pecca- 
liir  inultum  est,  (the  guUt  which  is  committed  by  many  must  pass  unpunished.) 
Therefore,  of  gambling  it  may  be  said— Stat  mole  sua  (firm  in  its  impregnability 
unmoved  it  stands,)  and  in  anticipating  its  downfall  you  remind  one  of  the  rustic 
of  whom  Horace  speaks,  when  he  says  : 

J?ii>>fktus  expecfat,  (Jinn  defluat  amnis;  at  ille 
Lcthitur  ef  hibetur  in  omn'e  colubilis  aevtim. 

(The  peasant  [in  the  fable]  sits  waiting  on  the  bank  till  the  river  shall  have 
passed  away,  but  still  the  stream  flows  on,  and  will  continue  to  flow  forever,)  and 
the  stream  of  gaming  though  all  Possum  Holler  were  to  sit  down  upon  its  banks 
to  wait  until  it  passed  away,  will,  as  long  as  gold  is  a  God,  avarice  a  passion,  wealth 
a  virtue,  poverty  a  crime,  and  as  card-frauds  are  not  forbidden,  and  the  waves  of 
such  frauds  continue  to  wash  up  quartz  by  the  bushel,  so  long  will  that  stream 
flow  on  and  on  in  secula  seculorum. 

"The  baflled  sons  must,  feel  the  same  desires. 
And  act  the  same  7uail  follies  of  their  sires." 

0)1  a  heau  precher  a  qui  n'a  cure  de  bien  faire.  (It  is  in  vain  to  preach 
to  those  who  care  not  to  mend  )  It  is  not  with  reason  that  you  can  combat  the 
fire  that  is  in  the  blood.  Reason  is  not  equal  to  every  emergency.  If  you  under- 
take to  get  to  Heaven  by  the  light  of  reason  you  will  indubitably  land  in  Hell. 
The  poet  was  right  who  said  : 

"Vet  in  tlie  Tulp;ar  tliis  humor's  bred, 
Tliey'll  sooner  he  witli  idle  customs  led, 
Or  fond  opinions  such  as  they  liave  store. 
Than  learn  of  reason  or  of  virtues  lore." 

Exemplo  plus  quam  ratione  vivimus,  (we  live  more  by  example  than  reason;)  and 
moreover,  defficili  est  longu7)i  svbito  deponere  amorem,  (it  is  diflicult  at  once  to  lay 
aside  a  confirmed  passion.)  Attempt  to  put  down  gambling  by  prosecutions  and 
what  will  be  the  result.'    You  will  succeed  about  as  well  as — 

" he  who  stems  a  stream  with  sand 

And  fetters  fiarne  with  tlaxen  band." 

You  may  benefit  but  cannot  injure  the  gamblers.  You  will  shorten  their  din- 
ner tables  only  to  lengthen  their  Faro-tables.  You  will  increase  their  circum- 
spection, and  diminish  their  accommodations  and  without  lessening  their  patrons 
you  will  double  their  profits.  You  will  drive  them  into  a  new  regime  whereby 
they  will  bte  enabled  to  shuffle  off  a  certain  class  of  seedy  gentry,  who  now  only 
live  dar  (Zei?iaso  (toUro,  (to  thrust  their  feet  under  olher  men's  tables — sponge.)  To 
the  gamblers  this  will  be  a  trouvaille,  but  it  will  be  a  hard  lick  on  the  smell-feast. 
You  will  substitute  cold  snacks  for  hot  and.  savory  viands  on  tiieir  tables  and  cliassc 
cousin  for  the  best  qualities  of  Otarde,  Bumgardner  and  Madam  Cliquot  on  their 
side-boards.  Their  meetings  you  may  cause  to  be  conducted  more  ex  occtdlo,  but 
none  the  less  frequent  will  they  occur.  They  will  meet — a  la  derohce.  They  will 
form  their  secret  societies  and  organize  mystic  brotherhoods,  a  la  sons  of  Malta, 
and  go  largely  into  grips,  signs  and  countej'-signs.  They  will  have  their  cabalistic 
•mot  de  Vorde  and  mot  duguet,  pass-words,  watchwords  and  pass-keys  which  will  ena- 
ble them  to  laugh  to  scorn  the  vigilance  of  your  police  and  the  impotencj  of  your 
laws.  They  will  rarely  assemble  twice  in  the  same  place,  but  they  will  have 
their  rosets  and  bannerets,  which  will,  to  the  initiated,  point  the  place  and  "in- 
stant the  time,"  as  distinctly  as  Malise  ever  said — 

"The  muster  place  is  Lanrick  mead," 
when 

"lie  vanished,  and  o'er  moor  and  moss, 

vSped  fopward  with  the  Fiery  Cross." 

So  now  if  you  do  want  to  put  down  gaming,  rouse  the  bench,  rouse  the  press, 
rouse  the  politicians  and  rouse  the  people  to  license  it,  and  when  you  succeed 
fully  in  the  one  you  will  partially  in  the  other.  , 

ERSKINE. 


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